"Temporarily Permanent" Amnesty Extended for Salvadorans, Others

"The Bush administration has decided to grant a one-year extension of temporary permits allowing about 300,000 Salvadoran, Nicaraguan and Honduran immigrants to remain legally in the United States, officials said last night. The move is expected to benefit thousands of immigrants in the Washington area, who otherwise would lose their ability to live and work legally in the country. The decision on whether to extend the program, known as Temporary Protected Status, had been hotly debated in the federal bureaucracy," the Washington Post writes. "The program is controversial, with advocates of tighter immigration controls arguing that the beneficiaries are allowed to stay long after the crises have abated back home. Many of the immigrants arrived in the United States illegally . . . For countries such as El Salvador, the program means millions of dollars in additional remittances from immigrants."

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