WASHINGTON The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced that the President has granted Liberians permission to remain in the United States for one more year under Temporary Protected Status (TPS).Each year since 1992, these Liberians have relied on a reprieve from the White House extending their legal right to remain in the United States. This year their status was to expire on October 1, 2005. Earlier this month Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) wrote President Bush urging him to extend the current TPS designation.A majority of the Liberians living in the United States entered the country in 1989 after fleeing Liberia when civil war broke out.Reed, who has sponsored a bill to grant the Liberians permanent residency stated, While I am extremely pleased that the President has extended their ability to remain in the US, it is frustrating that these Liberian families continue to live in limbo when they could easily be given the opportunity to live here permanently. The Liberian community has been living, working, and paying taxes, in the United States some for a decade or more and has been ineligible for the benefits afforded to other tax payers. They are quality members of our communities, are homeowners, property owners and business owners. Many are professionals who have started families and have children who are American citizens. I urge the President to work with Congress to approve permanent residency for these Liberians.Following is the notice from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Department of Homeland Security:Extension of the Designation of Liberia for Temporary Protected StatusSUMMARY: The designation of Liberia for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) will expire on October 1, 2005. This Notice extends the designation of Liberia for 12 months, until October 1, 2006, and sets forth procedures necessary for nationals of Liberia and aliens having no nationality who last habitually resided in Liberia with TPS to re-register and to apply for an extension of their employment authorization documents (EADs) for the additional 12-month period. Re-registration is limited to persons who registered under the current designation (which was announced on August 25, 2004). Certain nationals of Liberia (or aliens having no nationality who last habitually resided in Liberia) who previously have not applied for TPS under the current designation may be eligible to apply under the late initial registration provisions.DATES: The extension of TPS for Liberia is effective October 1, 2005, and will remain in effect until October 1, 2006. The 60-day re- registration period begins August 16, 2005 and will remain in effect until October 17, 2005.FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Colleen Cook, Residence and Status Services, Office of Programs and Regulations Development, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Department of Homeland Security, 111 Massachusetts Avenue, NW., 3rd Floor, Washington, DC 20529, telephone (202) 514-4754.In 1991, President George Bush's Attorney General, William Barr, granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to these Liberians, providing temporary relief from deportation while the conflict prevented their safe return home. For the next eleven years, the Attorney General annually renewed this TPS status. The Homeland Security Act of 2002 shifted the functions of the Immigration and Naturalization Service to the DHS, which extended the TPS another year to October 1, 2004.To end this yearly cycle of reprieves, Reed has introduced the Liberian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act, S. 656, a bill to grant permanent residency to Liberians. Very troubling to many Liberian parents is that if they are deported they will be forced to decide whether to leave their US born children in the safety and comfort of the United States or bring them with them to the dangers of Liberia.Few groups who 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 also became eligible to change their status.