The US economy is starting to be shaken up by the Trump Administration’s revocation of humanitarian parole programs that gave foreign nationals the ability to work legally in the country. President Trump’s tough stance on immigration and recent government actions have forced many immigrants, who were legally residing in the US and had authorization to work, out of their jobs. As the Trump administration revoked humanitarian parole programs for nationals of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela (“CHNV”) and Temporary protected status (“TPS”) for nationals of Venezuela and Haiti the numbers of foreign nationals with valid work permits has taken a dive. As a result, Amazon has been faced with a dwindling work force in their warehouses around the country after certain employees who were eligible to work under CHNV or TPS could not obtain new work authorization documents and were consequently dismissed in late June as a result of their loss of work authorization.
Read moreNew York Times: “From Offices to Disney World, Employers Brace for the Loss of an Immigrant Work Force”
As hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Haiti, Nicaragua and El Salvador prepare to lose their legal status when Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for their countries end, some employers across the country are preparing for significant losses to their workforce. These TPS recipients, along with DACA recipients whose long-term status in the US remains unclear, make up approximately a million individuals in the US, many within the American work force.
Read moreDHS Ends TPS for Nicaraguans and Hatians
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced last week that they would be automatically extending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for approximately 86,000 Hondurans for an additional six months (less than the normal extension period) while at the same time announcing an end to TPS for thousands of Nicaraguans, providing them with a one-year wind down period that will end in January of 2019. While both countries were granted TPS in 1999 after a devastating hurricane killed thousands of Central Americans, the department concluded that the conditions in Nicaragua are now better than they were before the hurricane hit.
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