Central America is getting pounded by relentless rain. Tim has excellent coverage as to what is happening in El Salvador as well as ways in which you can help (The deluge of 2011, Weather map for El Salvador, Blog Action Day - The Rains and Food).
El Salvador from the Inside has some statistics and coverage of the storm's damage as well here and here.
Voices from El Salvador has been providing coverage all along. See here, here, here, here, here and here.
Al Jazeera has video on the storm in Guatemala.
The Central American economies were already hurting and the economic effects of the storms will do nothing to help. Perhaps this presents itself as another good opportunity for President Obama and the Department of Homeland Security to offer temporary protected status to Guatemalans instead of touting how many people it deported in 2010.
Showing posts with label natural disasters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label natural disasters. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
TPS in Central America
If you look around Central America today, Guatemala is probably the country most in need of relief through Temporary Protected Status (TPS). The US Secretary of Homeland Security has the authority to grant TPS to individuals from countries that are experiencing armed conflict, environmental disaster, or other conditions. These people are then allowed to work and reside in the US until the secretary determines that conditions are acceptable for their return.
Guatemalans are suffering from the damaging effects of recent natural disasters including tropical storms, volcanic eruptions, flooding, and earthquakes. Their government originally requested TPS benefits in June 2010. However, the Obama administration has given no indication that it is interested in moving forward in providing relief to Guatemalans living in the US. Even though the administration has announced that it will take some steps to ease up on deportations of people living in the country so long as they are no risk to society, the use of TPS to protect thousands of Guatemalans here does not appear to be on the agenda.
However, Guatemala has not given up on asking. After last week's earthquakes and flooding, Guatemalan Foreign Secretary Erick Maldonado stated that he plans to send another request to the US government for TPS protection.
It's tough to see Obama moving on this request given that he won't want to look soft on illegal immigration heading into the 2012 election. I don't think that that's the right way to look at it, but I imagine that's some of the politics behind the lack of a decision. Fewer people are coming across the US' southern border. More people are being deported than under previous administrations. A relatively large number appear to be leaving voluntarily. Finally, we also know that the border counties and states are by and large pretty safe. Obama should know by now that he is not going to get credit for any improved border security or reduction in the number of immigrants living in the country illegally. Extending TPS to Guatemalans is unlikely to affect anyone's perceptions of Obama's immigration policies even if they were paying attention. He might as well stop pretending that this is somehow going to change.
Meanwhile in El Salvador, Foreign Minister Hugo Martinez said that his government will request that the US extend TPS to over 218,000 Salvadorans living in the US. Thousands of Nicaraguans and Hondurans also are living in the US under TPS and presumably their governments will be looking for an extension as well.
If today you had to choose a Central American country most in need of TPS, it would be Guatemala. It has recently suffered the most in terms of natural disasters. Flooding has also taken lives in El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua, but just not to the extent that it has in Guatemala. However, it's much easier for the US government to simply maintain the status quo with regard to TPS benefits- no TPS for Guatemalans and TPS for Salvadorans, Hondurans, and Nicaraguans - than it is to make a change.
It doesn't matter that TPS was extended to Salvadorans over one decade ago (2001) following a series of devastating earthquakes or that Hondurans and Nicaraguans were given TPS two years earlier (1999) following October 1998's Hurricane Mitch. It's a lot easier to just extend TPS to the nationals of those countries that it is to grant it for the first time to the people of Guatemala even though they might actually be in greater need of that protection today.
At the same time, it's not clear that the US will be ending TPS to Salvadorans, Nicaraguans, and Hondurans anytime soon. Given that many of these individuals have been in the country for a decade or more now, it doesn't make sense to make them go "home." The administration should start thinking about how to transition these people to some form of permanent legal status.
Guatemalans are suffering from the damaging effects of recent natural disasters including tropical storms, volcanic eruptions, flooding, and earthquakes. Their government originally requested TPS benefits in June 2010. However, the Obama administration has given no indication that it is interested in moving forward in providing relief to Guatemalans living in the US. Even though the administration has announced that it will take some steps to ease up on deportations of people living in the country so long as they are no risk to society, the use of TPS to protect thousands of Guatemalans here does not appear to be on the agenda.
However, Guatemala has not given up on asking. After last week's earthquakes and flooding, Guatemalan Foreign Secretary Erick Maldonado stated that he plans to send another request to the US government for TPS protection.
It's tough to see Obama moving on this request given that he won't want to look soft on illegal immigration heading into the 2012 election. I don't think that that's the right way to look at it, but I imagine that's some of the politics behind the lack of a decision. Fewer people are coming across the US' southern border. More people are being deported than under previous administrations. A relatively large number appear to be leaving voluntarily. Finally, we also know that the border counties and states are by and large pretty safe. Obama should know by now that he is not going to get credit for any improved border security or reduction in the number of immigrants living in the country illegally. Extending TPS to Guatemalans is unlikely to affect anyone's perceptions of Obama's immigration policies even if they were paying attention. He might as well stop pretending that this is somehow going to change.
Meanwhile in El Salvador, Foreign Minister Hugo Martinez said that his government will request that the US extend TPS to over 218,000 Salvadorans living in the US. Thousands of Nicaraguans and Hondurans also are living in the US under TPS and presumably their governments will be looking for an extension as well.
If today you had to choose a Central American country most in need of TPS, it would be Guatemala. It has recently suffered the most in terms of natural disasters. Flooding has also taken lives in El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua, but just not to the extent that it has in Guatemala. However, it's much easier for the US government to simply maintain the status quo with regard to TPS benefits- no TPS for Guatemalans and TPS for Salvadorans, Hondurans, and Nicaraguans - than it is to make a change.
It doesn't matter that TPS was extended to Salvadorans over one decade ago (2001) following a series of devastating earthquakes or that Hondurans and Nicaraguans were given TPS two years earlier (1999) following October 1998's Hurricane Mitch. It's a lot easier to just extend TPS to the nationals of those countries that it is to grant it for the first time to the people of Guatemala even though they might actually be in greater need of that protection today.
At the same time, it's not clear that the US will be ending TPS to Salvadorans, Nicaraguans, and Hondurans anytime soon. Given that many of these individuals have been in the country for a decade or more now, it doesn't make sense to make them go "home." The administration should start thinking about how to transition these people to some form of permanent legal status.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Earthquakes in Guatemala
Six earthquakes struck Guatemala on Monday. From Nic Wirtz contributing for the Christian Science Monitor
It was a rude shock for most Guatemalans as they returned to the grind following a weekend of Independence Day celebrations. Buildings shook in the capital and schools closed throughout the country as the midday quakes struck. The tremors provoked landslides in some areas. At least three were killed.
Emergency services are battling to restore power in the region and ensure that recent torrential rain combined with the earthquakes does not result in more landslides.
All Guatemalan presidents have had to deal with natural disasters on their watch and Colom is no different. In 2010 alone, Guatemala had Tropical Storm Agatha, the eruption of the Pacaya Volcano, and a sinkhole. Mudslides were caused by Agatha as well as other storms throughout the year. They continue to be an all too regular occurrence as three children died in a mudslide a day after the earthquakes. (Update - At least fifteen now believed dead.)
While it is always terrible when these earthquakes strike causing death and destruction, yesterday's multiple earthquakes do not appear to have caused too much physical damage and large-scale loss of life.
However, it brings up a reason to once again remind everyone that President Obama and the US government have failed to respond to Guatemala's request for temporary protected status (TPS) for its nationals living in the US. Not everyone has given up hope.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Guatemala Ends State of Emergency
According to a brief article on Inside Costa Rica
Guatemala lifted the state of calamity it adopted in 2010 to cope with the destruction caused by several natural disasters, although reconstruction continues, said Press Secretary Ronaldo Robles.
A spell of storms, floodings and the eruption in late May of the Pacaya volcano forced the government of President Alvaro Colom to adopt this measure and extend it eight consecutive times.
The inclimency of the weather left more than $1.5 billion in losses, 274 dead and damaged 700,000 people.That's good news, of course. However, I wonder how much the decision to end the state of emergency will undermine Guatemala's application for an extension of TPS to its citizens living in the United States. I wasn't optimistic in February and this does nothing to change that.
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