How Can You Swear to Have Been in the U.S. Continuously since March 4, 2017, when It Is January 2017?

By David North on January 4, 2017

The Department of Homeland Security is grinding out new Temporary Protected Status schemes so rapidly that it is not stopping to proofread them.

DHS published in today's Federal Register another one of the extensions of TPS status (legalizing people from Yemen who are currently in illegal status) but it seems, in the last sentence below, to be making an impossible demand:

Under the redesignation, individuals who currently do not have TPS may submit an initial application during the 180-day initial registration period that runs from January 4, 2017 through July 3, 2017. In order to receive a grant of TPS, initial applicants under this redesignation must demonstrate that they have continuously resided in the United States since January 4, 2017 and been continuously physically present in the United States since March 4, 2017, in addition to meeting all other TPS eligibility criteria.


The advance version of the notice, posted yesterday by DHS with "insert date of publication in the FEDERAL REGISTER" in place of today's date, contained the same impossible combination of dates. We have previously pointed out that the advance notice of TPS allows quick-witted aliens of the country of interest, then within easy reach of our shores, to pop in illegally and then apply for TPS status a day or so later.

The Federal Register announcement can be seen here. In case the announcement is later corrected or changed, here is a saved copy of the original.

This sort of sloppy treatment of an amnesty program would be more worrisome if the potential numbers of TPS seekers were larger. In this case, according to the government document cited above, there are only about 1,000 current Yemeni holders of TPS status.