According to this article in the Miami Herald, the Bush Administration has decided to renew the temporary work and residence permits of 248,282 “undocumented” (illegal) immigrants from El Salvador under the so-called Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program. The decision will be announced later today.

A Bush Administration official informed the Herald that the reason for renewing the permits was because El Salvador was still rebuilding after earthquakes that struck the country in January 2001, four years ago.

Ostensibly, the TPS program is supposed to allow people from countries experiencing a natural disaster or civil war to come to the U.S. temporarily. Most of the Salvadorans granted TPS status, however, were already living in the U.S. illegally before the earthquake struck. In effect, the TPS designation is amnesty by another name.

There is nothing temporary about it. As the Federation for American Immigration Reform noted when the the decision to grant TPS status was announced back in 2001, “based on the track record of TPS authorizations, it is certain that it will be anything but temporary.”

In addition to illegal aliens from El Salvador, we have TPS programs for people from the following countries:

Burundi
Honduras
Liberia
Montserrat
Nicaragua
Somalia
Sudan

More background on the TPS sham here, here, and here. The official government description of the TPS program states:

During the period for which a country has been designated under the TPS program, TPS beneficiaries may remain in the United States and may obtain work authorization. However, TPS does not lead to permanent resident status.

Oh, yeah? I’ll believe that when the feds tell the 248,282 “temporary” TPS permit-holders from El Salvador that it’s time to go home.