9,000 Nepalis face deportation as Trump administration prepares to cancel residency permits

By Nick Miroff April 24 at 7:07 PM

The Department of Homeland Security is preparing to cancel the temporary residency permits of about 9,000 immigrants from Nepal, the Trump administration’s latest move to expel foreigners living in the United States with some form of provisional status.

According to internal planning documents viewed by The Washington Post, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen will give the Nepalis a one-year grace period to prepare their departure, but they would face deportation after June 24, 2019.

The Nepalis were granted temporary protected status (TPS) — allowing them to remain in the United States legally — after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake devastated the country three years ago, on April 25, 2015, killing nearly 9,000.

The TPS designation was created by Congress in 1990 to avoid sending foreigners back to nations destabilized by natural disasters, armed conflict and other catastrophes.

Immigration hard-liners in the Trump administration have pushed to eliminate TPS protections whenever possible. In recent months DHS has canceled the residency permits of 200,000 Salvadorans, 50,000 Haitians and a smaller number of Nicaraguans and Sudanese.

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