WASHINGTON — The Trump administration moved Monday to end protected status for migrants who came to the US from Honduras and Nicaragua — offering a plane ticket and a $1,000-per-person “exit bonus” to anyone who self-deports immediately.
Temporary legal status for Hondurans and Nicaraguans to emigrate and receive work permits grew out of Washington’s humanitarian response to Hurricane Mitch, which struck both countries in the fall of 1998, killing almost 7,300 people.
“Temporary Protected Status was designed to be just that — temporary,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement, adding that Honduras and Nicaragua had “taken all the necessary steps” to recover from the massive storm.
Around 72,000 migrants from Honduras and 4,000 migrants from Nicaragua currently live in the US under the protected status.
Noem noted that the removal of the temporary legal status was in compliance with the law signed by former President George H.W. Bush that had initially authorized the protections in 18-month stints.
Termination of the temporary protections will take effect Sept. 3.
Migrants will be able to self-deport with a taxpayer-funded plane ticket and $1,000 incentive via the US Customs and Border Protection’s CBP Home App, the inverse of the Biden’s administration’s CBP One that let almost million asylum seekers into the country.
Noem earlier sought to eliminate temporary legal status for Haitians and Venezuelans as well, but federal judges blocked both moves, shielding up to 850,000 from being vulnerable to immigration removals.
In May, the Supreme Court overruled the San Francisco judge who paused the Venezuelan deportations, clearing the way for up to 350,000 to leave the US and more temporary protected status designations to be yanked.
Days before leaving office, Biden’s Department of Homeland Security postponed the deportation of nearly 1 million migrants from Sudan, Ukraine, El Salvador and Venezuela — the last of which became a breeding ground for members of the vicious gang Tren de Aragua — until 2026.
President Trump had scrapped the program during his first term and expelled around 400,000 migrants before being bogged down by legal challenges.
