More than a quarter century after Hurricane Mitch devastated parts of Central America, the Trump administration is moving to boot out 55,000 migrants who have been living in the U.S. under special deportation protections since then.
The migrants are from Nicaragua and Honduras, which were slammed by the hurricane in November 1998. In 1999, the Clinton administration said migrants from those nations who were in the U.S. at that time would be granted Temporary Protected Status.
Over the ensuing years, it had been renewed by the Bush, Obama and Biden administrations and court orders, but Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Monday she was bringing it to an end.
She said both nations have recovered enough to no longer need the status.
“Temporary Protected Status was designed to be just that — temporary,” she said.
Some 52,600 Hondurans and 3,000 Nicaraguans were living under TPS as of December, according to