(RNN) – On Friday, the Trump administration ended a program for tens of thousands of Hondurans who have lived in the U.S. legally for two decades. They have 18 months to leave the country or qualify for a visa another way.
The Department of Homeland Security ended the "temporary protected status" for about 57,000 Hondurans. The status is granted to those who are affected by hurricanes, earthquakes and civil wars.
In 1999, Honduras was granted TPS after Hurricane Mitch destroyed much of the country.
Other countries that had the status revoked are El Salvador, Haiti, Nepal, Nicaragua, Liberia, and Sudan, which makes about 317,000 immigrants who must return home after living in the U.S. for decades.
The program is still active for those from Syria, South Sudan, Somalia, and Yemen.
Parents will have to decide if they should leave their children born in the U.S. behind or take them back to a country they don’t know. If the parents stay past the 18 months, they could face deportation if caught.
Extension of the temporary protected status program is required every few years. This weekend was the deadline for Honduras, according to CNN.
Honduras has the highest murder rate in the world, according to the United Nations. El Salvador has the second highest.
The New York Times reports that Hondurans currently in the TPS program have 53,500 American-born children, 85 percent participate in the labor force, compared with 63 percent of the overall U.S. population, and nearly 20 percent have mortgages.
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