Nepal Is Still Too Unstable to Cancel TPS for 9,000 People in United States

SILVER SPRING, Maryland, April 3 -- The Catholic Legal Immigrant Network issued the following news release:

The United States must continue to protect the nearly 9,000 Nepali people who face forced return to their struggling country, concludes a newly-released report, "Rebuilding from Rubble: Why TPS is needed for Nepal," about the next federal review of whether to extend Temporary Protected Status for a vulnerable population.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen is required to decide by April 25 whether to renew TPS for the citizens of Nepal. Those with TPS have been protected from deportation while their country recovers from a devastating 2015 earthquake. Recovery has been slowed by a subsequent series of political crises and natural disasters.

At least 30 percent of critical public infrastructure including government buildings, schools and medical facilities remain under repair. Adequate food and water is still in short supply and fewer than 100,000 homes have been replaced--of the 750,000 destroyed by the earthquake.

The report concludes that a lack of adequate housing, health care and education and persistent food and water insecurity makes the safe return of nearly 9,000 Nepali TPS holders impossible at this time.

The report by the Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc., known as CLINIC, evaluated information from the governments of Nepal and the United States,relief agencies and NGOs such as the World Bank, which regularly reviews the state of the country's recovery.

The report was developed in close partnership with Adhikaar, a nonprofit serving the Nepali-speaking immigrant and refugee community. "Adhikaar sees the hardships that Nepali immigrants go through to support families here and the country's rebuilding efforts back home," said Pabitra Benjamin, Executive Director of Adhikaar. "Right now, Nepal is still in a pivotal state of rebuilding from the 2015 earthquakes, and TPS gives hardworking Nepalis in the United States the tremendous opportunity to support these efforts by creating a stable foundation to rebuild Nepal while contributing to the economy in the U.S."

In a letter delivered with a copy of the report (https://cliniclegal.org/news/275-faith-leaders-and-organizations-call-administration-extend-tps-nepal) to DHS on March 30, 275 faith leaders and organizations called for the administration to extend TPS for Nepal for 18 months.

The Trump administration has already terminated TPS for Sudan, Nicaragua, Haiti and El Salvador, affecting a combined 245,000 people. The TPS protection from deportation will expire for those countries at various dates beginning this November. The administration also will decide this year whether to extend or end TPS designations for Honduras, Yemen and Somalia.

Read our report (https://cliniclegal.org/resources/rebuilding-rubble-why-tps-needed-nepal)