U.S.-EL SALVADOR: Clinton may end refugee status for Salvadorans

• by IPS Correspondents (washington)
• Thursday, November 24, 1994
• Inter Press Service

WASHINGTON, Nov 24 (IPS) - The administration of President Bill Clinton may soon end the temporary refugee status that tens of thousands of Salvadorans have enjoyed since Congress passed a law in 1990.

A Washington Post report Thursday said new regulations ending Salvadorans' temporary protective status (TPS) could be issued as early as next month, although plans are being considered that would offer Salvadorans without permanent residency here a six- to nine-month transition period to permit them to either prepare to return or to apply for permanent resident status.

Any move to end the TPS could affect the status of a substantial percentage of the estimated 600,000 to 800,000 Salvadorans who entered the United States during the 1979-91 civil war in their homeland.

It could also draw howls from the rightwing government of Salvadoran President Armando Calderon Sol which is overseeing an uneasy return to peaceful conditions in the Central American nation.

His government is worried that economic conditions will not permit the easy absorption of thousands of returning citizens. In addition, remittances home by Salvadorans in the United States amount to close to one billion dollars a year -- significantly more than El Salvador's coffee exports, the country's biggest foreign exchanger earner.

Under U.S. law, foreigners can avoid deportation if they have lived in the United States for seven years and can show that returning home would cause them "severe hardship."

No administration official could be reached for comment on the Post report Thursday, since the nation was observing one of its biggest holidays -- Thanksgiving Day.

But the report follows voter approval this month of Proposition 187 in California. It bans the delivery all non-emergency education, social and health services to undocumented foreigners in the state, including children.

The proposition is now being challenged in the courts, and some analysts believe it to be unconstitutional.

But, as a sign of rising anti-immigrant sentiment, Proposition 187 has the Clinton administration running scared, and one of the largest immigrant groups, aside from Mexicans, is the huge Salvadoran community, about 100,000 of whom live in the Washington area alone.

Of these, only about 20,000 currently benefit from TPS status.

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