It’s the kind of story that inspires tear-jerking pieces in the mainstream media: a Trump administration proposal that would send people who were here legally for decades back to their countries. But is it being accurately reported — and is Donald Trump acting unfairly?

It was one of the stories that fell through the proverbial cracks in the media coverage last week, but over the next two months, the Temporary Protected Status of individuals who are in the United States from five countries — Afghanistan, Cameroon, Honduras, Nepal, and Nicaragua are set to expire.

For the unfamiliar, TPS is a program under Section 244 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows citizens of a foreign country who are physically present in the United States to stay in America if their home country is hit with disaster. This generally means either an ongoing armed conflict, some form of natural disaster, or another form of extraordinary, temporary unrest that makes it dangerous for individuals to return.

The program means that as long as the individual does not break the rules, they cannot be deported, may be allowed work authorization and authorization to travel abroad, and cannot be detained on immigration status issues alone.

While TPS relief is usually given for a short-term period, that term can be extended at the discretion of the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. However, thanks to the looming termination of protections for the above countries — particularly Honduras and Nicaragua — the sad profiles are beginning to pop up in the establishment media.

Take this one from the Miami Herald, published Tuesday:

Virginia Guevara came to the United States from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, in the 1990s, before the country was granted Temporary Protected Status following the devastating destruction caused by Hurricane Mitch in 1998.

Guevara, 48 at the time, found a new and better life in the U.S. by working as a kitchen helper. Now, at 78, she faces possible deportation back to Honduras, a country she hasn’t been to in decades, after the Trump administration ended deportation protections for over 51,000 Hondurans on Monday. Her family is now concerned about what will happen in September when TPS for Honduras officially expires. Her grandson, Isaac Dubon, is worried about what would happen to her if she’s detained in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility, after news reports of multiple deaths, including five alone in Florida. … 

Maria Elena Hernandez, a 67-year-old Nicaraguan immigrant, has been living and working in the U.S. for nearly 30 years with TPS. She worked as a cleaner at a university for 18 years, and two years ago, she began receiving Social Security benefits.

On Monday, Hernandez, who lives in Broward, became part of a group of 2,900 Nicaraguans who learned that the Trump administration is ending their TPS, the measure that grants deportation protection and work permits to immigrants in the U.S. from countries in turmoil. In September, she could face deportation to a country she has not been to in decades, unable to manage her two chronic diseases and separated from her family, who are U.S. citizens. …

“All she ever did was work,” said Dubon Guevara, Virginia’s grandson. “It’s just unfair.”

Is it? Well, herein lies the problem with the program and why it’s not only unfair but should have been done years ago.

There’s no easy way around this: The “temporary” part of TPS is only accurate if your timeline begins with the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. While some TPS recipients are of recent provenance — Ethiopia, Venezuela, and Myamar have all been added to the list in the 2020s thanks to political instability — TPS recipients in some nations have had their stays extended since 1991 at the earliest.

In the case of Honduras and Nicaragua in particular, not only have both nations had their TPS designations extended since they were first issued during Bill Clinton’s administration, but both nations had the designation issued for natural disasters the countries have long since recovered from.

Both countries received the designation on Jan. 5, 1999, allowing people who had continually resided in the country since Dec. 30. 1998 to claim protected status.

The initial reason behind was Hurricane Mitch, a storm which killed over 10,000, as the U.K. Guardian reported. However, the threat from the storm — and the damage that it caused — are obviously long since passed. Yet, roughly 72,000 Hondurans and 4,000 Nicaraguans have continued to remain in the country under TPS protections without obtaining legal permanent residence.

The administration has finally put an end to it, urging the TPS’ers still left behind to arrange self-deportation through the Customs and Border Protection Home app. They’ll receive complimentary plane tickets to Honduras or Nicaragua and $1,000 upon exit.

“Temporary Protected Status was designed to be just that — temporary,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told Fox News.

“It is clear that the Government of Honduras has taken all of the necessary steps to overcome the impacts of Hurricane Mitch, almost 27 years ago.”

“Honduran citizens can safely return home, and DHS is here to help facilitate their voluntary return,” Noem added.

“Honduras has been a wonderful partner of the Trump Administration, helping us deliver on key promises to the American people. We look forward to continuing our work with them.”

And to put a finer point on it, there was a DHS representative: “The impacts of a natural disaster impacting Nicaragua in 1999 no longer exist.”

What’s the Fake News crying about today?

1) TPS = TEMPORARY Protected Status. “Temporary” is literally in the name.

2) It’s Florida. As @DHSgov said, ICE has higher standards than most prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens. All detainees are given proper meals, medical… pic.twitter.com/Gk8RWnRgnG

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 10, 2025

“The environmental situation has improved enough that it is safe enough for Nicaraguan citizens to return home,” the representative added. “This decision restores integrity in our immigration system and ensures that TPS remains temporary.”

And, as it’s worth noting, Honduras and Nicaragua are simply the worst offenders in a program that has been abused for years. Citizens of El Salvador had their TPS status renewed through 2026 for earthquakes that happened in early 2001. Somalians, meanwhile, have been receiving TPS status renewals since 1991 for their country’s notoriously unstable nature.

These aren’t situations where citizens of these nations who happen to be in the United States are being given an opportunity to plan their return carefully. Instead, we’re simply punting the ball down the road a few years and hoping someone else deals with it.

Then, when someone else does — and treats Temporary Protected Status as if it’s temporary — it’s seen as unfair by the media. There’s nothing unfair about it, however; arguably, the only injustice here is that politicians have made a mockery out of a well-intentioned program by turning it into a backdoor residency statute. Thanks to the abuses perpetrated mostly by Democratic administrations, Americans will be far warier about extending this program to new recipients — even if they were the people TPS was originally designed to help.

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