WASHINGTON After more than a decade of last minute reprieves, fear of deportation and continued limbo, the status of about 10,000 Liberians who fled for their lives to the United States remains uncertain. In response, U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) has reintroduced a bill to give permanent residency to the Liberians. Since 1992, these Liberians have relied on a one-year Temporary Protected Status (TPS) or Delayed Enforced Departure (DED) reprieve from the White House extending their legal right to remain in the United States. This year their status is to expire on October 1, 2005. These individuals, many of whom have been in the United States since fleeing Liberia in the late 1980's and early 1990's, have retained a legal status which allows them to live, work and pay taxes in the United States but remain ineligible for the most basic benefits such as health care, food stamps and unemployment insurance. To end this yearly limbo and to ensure the safety of the Liberians, U.S. Senator Jack Reed has introduced the Liberian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act, S. 656, a bill to grant permanent residency to Liberians who have lived legally in the United States since 1991. The legislation would extend permanent residency status to Liberians originally granted protected status, beginning in 1991 by Attorney General William Barr under President George H. Bush. It is innately unfair to continually put people through this unnecessary uncertainty, Reed stated. More than 10,000 people have lived, worked and paid taxes here. Many of them have had children born as American citizens here, yet year after year they face a needless deadline that could send them into the middle of a war. For so long they have contributed to our country, it is time that we finally grant them permanent residency. Few groups which have received protected status have remained in this immigration limbo longer than the Liberians. In the time since the Liberians left their homeland because of a bloody civil war, Congress has passed a law allowing 4,996 Poles, 387 Ugandans, 565 Afghanis and 1,180 Ethiopians to adjust their status. The 102nd Congress passed a law to change the status of over 50,000 Chinese nationals who had been granted DED after the Tiananmen Square massacre. And when Congress passed legislation known as NACARA, 150,000 Nicaraguans, 5,000 Cubans, 200,000 El Salvadorans and 50,000 Guatemalans became eligible to change their status.The United Nations estimates that 200,000 people have been displaced by the war in Liberia and human rights organizations accuse both sides of abuses, including rapes, killings and the forced recruitment of civilians.