Smith: Eleven Years Is Not 'temporary'

Ranking Member Lamar Smith (R-TX) issued the following statement today in response the Obama administration's announcement that it would extent Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for illegal immigrants from Nicaragua and Honduras. TPS for illegal immigrants from those nations was scheduled to expire in July. The Obama administration announced today that it would extent TPS for those nations until January 2012.

Ranking Member Smith: "President Obama's announcement of an extension of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for illegal immigrants from Honduras and Nicaragua ignores stretches the definition of "temporary.'

Only in Washington, DC, would anyone call 11 years -- and counting -- "temporary.' TPS has become a stealth amnesty for illegal immigrants.

Honduras and Nicaragua have long since recovered from the hurricane damage that resulted in the granting of TPS more than a decade ago. It's time to end this stealth amnesty program and address illegal immigration."

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