Liberians and TPS: More Victims of the Anti-Immigration Movement

The African country of Liberia was founded in 1821 by former American slaves and the American Colonization Society (ACS), an organization of white clergymen, abolitionists, and slave owners. The first settlers, former slaves, acted in the spirit of early Americans, who themselves had fled to a new continent to escape oppression, injustice, poverty, and inequality. Those first Americo-Liberians must have been filled with hope at the prospect of a new land where they could at last live in freedom without fear of persecution. Even the name of this new country bespoke optimism: Liberia means "Land of the Free". The ACS was happy to help, and, in fact, governed the Liberian commonwealth until its independence in 1847. It was a country founded with the best of intentions. But, as the saying goes, the road to hell is often paved with those same good intentions.

Almost from the start, conflict erupted between indigenous Liberians and these new Americo-Liberians, who excluded the original inhabitants from voting and from holding citizenship. Periodic tensions and conflicts continued from independence until 1980, when an indigenous Liberian, Samuel Doe, seized power and executed the president and other government officials, mostly Americo-Liberians. Doe’s coup d’état ended more than a hundred years of Americo-Liberian domination of the country. So much for good intentions.

Doe’s leadership did not provide a respite from conflict, however. He oversaw a period marked by growing ethnic tensions, human rights violations and corruption, until being captured and killed himself by a group of rebels under the leadership of Charles Taylor. It was Charles Taylor who then took this already smoldering country deeper into an unimaginable hell.

From 1989 to 1996, under the leadership of Charles Taylor, the bloodiest civil war in Africa’s history raged in Liberia, eventually killing some two hundred thousand people, and displacing more than a million Liberians to other countries around the world. Ultimately, after dozens of failed treaties, cease-fires, and peace accords, Charles Taylor resigned under pressure in 2003 and went to Nigeria in exile. He left behind a country in ruins.

Some eight thousand of those one million displaced Liberians came to the United States of America, and were granted Temporary Protective Status (TPS). TPS is defined by www.ucsis.gov as "…a temporary immigration status granted to eligible nationals of designated countries…[the] Attorney General may provide TPS to aliens in the U.S. who are temporarily unable to safely return to their home country because of ongoing armed conflict, an environmental disaster, or other extraordinary and temporary conditions." (The authority to grant TPS has since passed from the Attorney General to the Secretary of Homeland Security.)

The first designation of TPS for Liberia occurred in 1991. This designation has been scheduled to expire, and then been extended, several times, most recently in October of 2006. It was announced then that the TPS designation for Liberia would officially be terminated, but would not take effect until October 1, 2007. As the date draws near for what is, essentially, their forced deportation from the United States, many Liberians in the U.S. are protesting, hoping for another reprieve.

If one listens with one’s heart alone, their situation is a tragic one. These people fled some of the worst atrocities in African history, seeking the protection of the country that had originally given birth to their own. As the civil war raged on, over years, these Liberian refugees tried to go on with their lives. They married and had families, they pursued educations and careers, they put down roots. And now, with one year to get their affairs in order, they are being told they must return to the country they fled. Indeed, if one listens with one’s heart alone, the answer seems as though it must be clear: a reprieve should be granted.

But decisions in this matter are not being made with hearts alone. In fact, the Liberians who remain today in the U.S., some 3,500 of them, have had some options all along, since being granted their original TPS designation in 1991, to ensure that this day would never come. The wording from the government regarding their TPS status is quite clear, that "TPS does not lead to permanent resident status." According to www.uscis.gov, those Liberians in the U.S. under the TPS designation could have applied for immigrant status, and, if granted, subsequently could have applied for permanent resident status: "TPS does not prevent an alien from applying for another immigration benefit, such as non-immigrant status, adjustment of status based on an immigrant or employment-based petition [which was another option for the Liberians to have utilized], or asylum. Likewise, the grant of another immigration status has no bearing on [one’s] TPS. For the purposes of change of status and adjustment of status, an alien is considered as being in, and maintaining, lawful status as a nonimmigrant during the period in which the alien is granted TPS." One cannot help but be moved by their plight, but one must also ask, why did they not take advantage of some of these options before there was a one-year clock counting down their days here?

What awaits these Liberians upon their return to their native homeland? According to www.uscis.gov, the Secretary of Homeland Security "determined that the termination of the TPS designation is warranted because the extraordinary and temporary conditions that formed the basis of the designation have improved and no longer prevent Liberians…from returning to Liberia in safety." Conditions may have improved from the days of the bloody civil war, but by how much?

There have been some encouraging developments, signs of hope, to be sure: according to www.state.gov, "The 2005 presidential and legislative elections…were the most free, fair, and peaceful elections in Liberia’s history." Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the victor in that election, is Africa’s first democratically elected female president. The United Nations lifted its sanctions blocking the export of diamonds from Liberia, allowing shipments to resume last week. The U.N. also maintains a sizable peacekeeping presence in the country as well. But is hope alone enough to warrant their return?

www.state.gov puts the literacy rate of Liberia at just twenty percent; the life expectancy is a meager 42.5 years; and in the formal sector, unemployment stands at a staggering eighty percent. In the U.S. state of Minnesota, where there is a large number of Liberians employed in the health care industry, that last figure has many wondering how they would be able to earn a living upon their return to Liberia. Even President Sirleaf herself has actively lobbied for an extension of TPS for her countrymen here in the U.S., writing a personal letter to U.S. President George Bush: "…these dedicated Liberians…must abandon everything that they have built for themselves, and everything that they hope for the future…Continuing to provide residency…will allow them to continue to contribute not only to American society, but also to Liberian reconstruction."

So what is the answer to this dilemma? The Liberians’ s lawful status is different from that of other groups of immigrants in this country, particularly those here illegally. Yet the prospects of granting yet another extension or offering a blanket amnesty to the Liberians inspires indignation, even outrage for many Americans. Witness the request made of President Bush by Congressman Tom Tancredo (currently a presidential candidate): "…this designation [TPS] has been abused…[it]seems to be utilized more as a tool to provide amnesty on a temporary installment plan rather than the purpose for which it was created." (http://tancredo.house.gov)

In response to a request by Liberia that TPS be extended in order to continue the delivery of millions of dollars sent home to Liberia by TPS beneficiaries in the U.S., Tancredo’s response was: "…the TPS program was not created as a bilateral economic aid program. It was enacted to allow foreign nationals temporary refuge in the U.S. when circumstances in their home country have deteriorated or become temporarily untenable."

Congressman Tancredo makes a valid point. President Sirleaf does as well, as do the approximately 3,500 Liberians still remaining in the U.S. whose time under our protection is rapidly drawing to a close. The world should be watching this closely, as the TPS status for Liberians is not the only one due to expire in the near future. By the year 2009, the countries of Burundi, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Somalia, and Sudan will all lose their TPS status unless they are given additional reprieves, which in this climate of heated immigration debate seems increasingly unlikely. TPS designees from those countries must decide, like the Liberians should have decided, whether to pursue a change of their own individual designations as immigrants, or to face forced deportation back to countries which may not hold much for them but a bleak future.

The Liberians are here legally, for now, under the protection of the American government, but their time has run out, the window of opportunity for them to make the necessary arrangements to stay has closed. And yet, no one wants to see families torn apart, people losing their livelihoods, or the health and welfare of Liberians put into jeopardy by their return to a country which has only just begun to rebuild. It is a terrible situation, one which requires Solomon-like wisdom in order to find a solution. But sadly, that is a quality that, at least on any issue even remotely connected to the larger question of immigration in the U.S., continues to elude those with the authority to make a change.

Sources: The Minneapolis Star Tribune; www.wikipedia.com; www.state.gov; www.olmn.org (The Organization of Liberians in Minnesota); http://allAfrica.com/stories/200407300696.htm; http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/country-profiles/1043500.stm; www.uscis.gov; http://tancredo.house.gov