The scary thought of being deported is slowly gripping several Liberian communities across the United States. Many families across the country now fear that their deportation is imminent come October 1, 2007, FPA has learned.

Unless individuals from Liberia who currently have Temporary Protective Status (TPS) are granted some other lawful immigration status or permission to remain in the United States by September 30th, if they remain in the U.S. they will begin to accrue unlawful presence as of Oct. 1, says the US Federal Register notice.

The Registry also states that come October 1^st, more than 3,000 nationals and former residents of Liberia will lose their temporary protected status (TPS) and their work authorization (EAD) when, on that date, the designation of Liberia as a country whose nationals and former residents may be eligible for TPS is officially terminated.

Immigration agents said the government may not round up immigrants and cart them back to Liberia, but that those affected would not be allowed to renew their work permits. After the deadline, they would essentially be living in the country illegally and employers are expected to discharge several Liberians.

Reports from Minnesota, which is home to the US’s largest population of immigrants from Liberia, suggest that many families now fear they may soon be deported. "I'm not getting it at all," said immigrant Oretha Anderson, who sends money to two dozen relatives in Liberia because the country is still in ruins. She said it’s not safe to live in Liberia. “It's not safe for the children; it's not safe for us. Those that live there, they just live by the grace of God."

Metchien Richards worried for what could happen to her U.S.-born son if she were forced to return to her homeland, a place with no clean water, no jobs and scarce electricity. "Oh my goodness," exclaimed Richards. "If I have to go home, who's going to take care of my child?"

Richards learned recently that she would be allowed to stay in the U.S., but the deadline looms for other immigrants. Many of the state's Liberian residents live in Brooklyn Park. The city has argued it would have a negative civic impact if they were forced to leave.

However, for another Liberian resident in Bordentown, New Jersey who identified himself as Wil told FPA Wednesday that he is planning on returning to Liberia to engage in private business. According to him, “I knew the day would come when these people (US) would start to kick us out, so right now, I have two containers on sea going to Monrovia with some goods. Soon, I will follow to clear them.” Wil said he will not wait for the October deadline “to be embarrassed.”

In order to retain their status until the TPS program for Liberia terminates on Sept. 30, 2007, Liberians with TPS were required to reregister for the program between Sept. 20 and Nov. 20, 2006. 

The same registry notice automatically extends for six months the validity of employment authorization documents (EADs) issued as of Sept. 20, 2006, to Liberians under the Liberian TPS program.  The automatic extension is effective through Apr. 1, 2007, a few days left. 

"Once the Secretary determines that a TPS designation should be terminated, aliens who had TPS under that designation are expected to plan for their departure from the United States and may apply for other immigration benefits for which they may be eligible,” says the registry notice.

In justifying the termination of the TPS program for Liberia, the notice, which appears over Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's name, says, "The uncertain situation that characterized the immediate aftermath of the armed conflict's end and the temporary and extraordinary conditions caused by the long war have improved." 

The notice also mentions the presence in Liberia of "a large and robust peacekeeping mission," the existence there of a democratically-elected government, as well as efforts by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to repatriate tens of thousands of Liberian refugees. 

However, a recent investigation by BBC News found that United Nations peacekeeping troops in Liberia have engaged in systematic sexual abuse of children "involving food being given out to teenage refugees in return for sex."  The BBC quoted a staff person with a nongovernmental charitable organization as saying that reports of incidents of sexual abuse by U.N. peacekeepers are "still rampant, despite pronouncements that they have been curbed." 

The Los Angeles Times also reported on January 15 that people returning to Liberia after having been forced by 14 years of civil war there to flee and live abroad, many in refugee camps are finding that the houses and land they left behind have been taken over by others.  In some cases, those who took over the returning refugees’ houses and land are from tribes other than the returnees’, a fact that is again fanning tribal rivalries in Liberia.

The paper also reported that the new occupants sometimes have torn down the rightful owners’ homes, built new ones, and even established new businesses on the appropriated land, according to the article.

The conflict over land is complicated by the fact that many returning refugees do not have documents that establish definitively their ownership of the land that has been taken over either because they fled in such a hurry that they had to abandon everything, or they never had property deeds to begin with, or multiple deeds exist, each indicating that the land belongs to a different party.

The U.S. attorney general designated Liberia for TPS in Oct. 2002 because ongoing armed conflict there made it unsafe for people from Liberia to return to their homeland.  The secretary of Homeland Security extended that designation in 2003; then, in a Federal Register notice published on Aug. 25, 2004, the secretary simultaneously terminated the existing TPS program for Liberia and redesignated Liberia for TPS, explaining that while the civil war in Liberia which prompted the initial designation had ended, "the damage caused by the civil war has led to extraordinary and temporary conditions [there] that prevent the safe return" of Liberians to their country.

The last country whose designation for TPS was terminated in 2005 without the country being immediately redesignated for TPS was Montserrat, a small island nation in the Caribbean. The Bush administration terminated the program for Montserrat despite the fact that the natural disaster that had prompted the original designation was (and still is) ongoing: eruptions of a volcano that have caused widespread devastation.

According to the New York Times, the devastation forced two-thirds of Monsterrat's inhabitants to flee to surrounding islands, Britain, the U.S., and elsewhere.  The rationale provided for terminating Montserratian TPS was that since the volcano's eruptions are likely to continue indefinitely, the disaster they constitute is not temporary, and TPS was intended by Congress only to provide temporary relief from temporary unsafe conditions.

The termination of the TPS program for Montserrat affected nearly 500 people, according to a news release issued by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) in February 2005.  These included the individuals who had been granted TPS as well as their dependents, including children who were born in the U.S. and who are thus U.S. citizens. 

The Bush administration's decision not to redesignate Montserrat for TPS prompted Schumer to introduce legislation to allow Montserratians with TPS to adjust to permanent resident status, but the bill went nowhere.  Nor did a letter sent by Schumer and Senators Edward Kennedy and John Kerry (both D-MA) urging President Bush to immediately reverse the decision have any effect. 

The termination of the TPS program for Liberia will deeply impact many times more people than did the termination of Montserratian TPS — certainly thousands of individuals and possibly hundreds of families.  It is likely that, as was true of the Montserratians, among the Liberians are entrepreneurs who have established thriving businesses in the communities where they live, valued employees of local businesses, and people with no property or relatives to return to in their devastated homeland.

ULAA Immigration Conference

Wil might be one of several Liberians who also have plans to return home to avoid the harassment by law enforcement agents. But the Union of Liberian Associations in the Americas (ULAA) has already launched efforts to reignite the fight for permanent status for thousands of Liberians on TPS.

In a news release issued recently, the Chairman of the ULAA National Immigration Committee, Michael Wreh, urged Liberians in their various communities across the United States to resume calling their Senators to mobilize support for the newly re-introduced Liberian Immigration bill sponsored by Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed, who has been championing the Liberian immigration cause in the US Congress.

The ULAA call comes in the wake of information received from the Office of Sen. Reed about the re-introduction in the U.S. House of Senate of the pro-Liberian immigration bill. In a letter to the ULAA Immigration Chief, the Legislative Assistant in the Office of Sen. Reed, Ms. Elizabeth King, said the Senator re-introduced the S-656 (Liberian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act) on Thursday, February 15, 2007.  

Ms. King further informed the ULAA official that the Senator’s Team was also working with the Immigration Subcommittee on the Senate Judiciary Committee to ensure that permanent residency for Liberians is included in the Comprehensive Immigration bill that will likely be considered by the Senate in the next few months.  She indicated that it would be great for Liberians in the various states to call their senators to tell them to co-sponsor S-656. 

The Union’s President Emmanuel S. Wettee is expected to deliver a major policy statement at an Immigration Conference in Trenton, New Jersey on Saturday, March 31st. His statement will focus mainly on TPS. The ULAA leadership is holding this strategy meeting with less than 200 days left for TPS to expire, to develop a standardized approach to communicate with members of US Congress, State and City Officers, and Civil Organizations.   

Participants at the Immigration Conference will include US and Liberian Immigration lawyers, the best from the best resource on Immigration issues in the Liberian Community, etc.  More than 300 Liberians are expected at the meeting.