As part of a firm of immigration lawyers serving the greater Detroit area, my colleagues and I advise dozens of Syrian clients fleeing their home country’s four-year civil war. The conflict has caused more than 220,000 casualties and a massive, multi-million-person refugee crisis. But the United States has welcomed few Syrian refugees to its shores: a miles-long asylum backlog, insufficient temporary relief, and laborious national security screening procedures that make sure terrorists are not slipping into the country keep refugee admissions to a minimum. Only 525 Syrians were granted asylum in the US in 2014, while the UN Refugee Agency has submitted 12,140 people for US resettlement consideration.
Many of those who do make it here are granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS). Although this is a provisional form of asylum, it forces refugees into a precarious holding pattern while allowing the US government an easy way out of confronting its humanitarian responsibilities.
Congress created TPS in 1990 to establish a uniform system for granting temporary protection from removal to people unable to return home because of political or environmental catastrophe. TPS holders are also granted work authorization for periods of six to 18 months with continuous renewal possibilities while the country of origin remains unsafe. It is the statutory embodiment of “safe haven” for those who may not meet the legal definition of refugee but are nonetheless fleeing. Ongoing armed conflict, much like the ceaseless hostilities in Syria, is a qualifying condition, and about 2,600 Syrians throughout the country currently have TPS protection. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) estimates that an additional 9,000 may be eligible by 2016.
Despite the benefits, TPS is a double-edged sword that prohibits those fleeing war from laying down roots and bringing immediate family members to join them. It can create a state of perpetual temporariness and does not offer a path to a green card, since there are no permanent resettlement or immigration opportunities.
TPS relief also removes from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) the obligation to resolve asylum and refugee concerns. Many of our Syrian clients must debate whether to apply for TPS or gamble with an asylum procedure that could take years for approval. They fear that accepting TPS might prejudice an immigration officer or court, who might then rationalize denying our clients asylum because they already have some form of protection. Though there are no legal grounds for these suspicions, immigration courts are understaffed, have limited resources, and there are just too many applicants. As of March 2015, there were 82,175 backlogged asylum cases nationwide, and this number is rapidly growing.
Immigration is a politically contentious issue in the US, making asylum protection a limited and inconsistent remedy. MS, a Syrian Christian client who came to Detroit on a visitor visa, was recently denied asylum even though Isis controls areas just a few miles away from his home village. The USCIS decided that he lacked a reasonable fear of future persecution in returning to Syria, even though non-Muslims are a minority and at a greater risk to be targeted by extremist groups.
MS, however, was granted an Australian immigration visa, and he will be resettling there despite his preference to stay in the US with his family, still in the prolonged asylum application process. As a highly accomplished civil engineer, Detroit or any other American city could have greatly benefitted from him staying, but Australia is offering more permanent options while TPS only provides indefinite second-class rights.
Another obstacle to resettlement with temporary protection is that there are no family reunification prospects. Some of our clients, who were denied asylum or cannot afford the time and money needed to file an appeal, are giving up their TPS status and, in spite of the risks, returning to Syria to be with their loved ones. Unlike with asylum, there is no “derivative” TPS status obtained as a result of being the spouse or child of someone who is eligible for TPS.
With the UN’s call for industrialized countries to shelter 130,000 Syrian refugees over the next two years, the US must step up to the challenge that the refugee crisis is bringing to our backyard. DHS must streamline its security vetting procedures and establish clear guidelines. And the USCIS needs to decide on asylum issues instead of brushing aside refugees with ambiguous temporary statuses. US immigration policies cannot change overnight, but Congress can broaden TPS regulations to give those huddled masses fleeing war a sincere shot at building a life here.
