Mullin v. Doe · ¶17

Congress created TPS in 1990 to provide short-term humanitarian relief for aliens who cannot safely return to their home countries due to events such as armed conflict or natural disaster. Before then, the Executive Branch sometimes provided similar relief as a matter of discretion without any express statutory authorization. Then, as now, the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) permitted the Executive to defer the removal of an alien who agrees to leave this country voluntarily. See 8 U. S. C. §1229c(a)(1); §1252(b) (1958 ed.). Before Congress created TPS, aliens had 30 days to depart voluntarily, but the Government claimed discretionary authority to extend that deadline indefinitely. Beginning in 1960, the Government used this mechanism to provide humanitarian relief similar to that now furnished by TPS. Under a program that came to be known as “Extended Voluntary Departure” (EVD),…

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