President George W. Bush is extending by 18 months the U.S. refuge for thousands of Liberians living in the United States under temporary protected status, according to AP. In a memo Wednesday night to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, Bush halted the deportation process for 18 months. That is the normal length of the temporary protected status program unless renewed, and it is renewable until the political or natural crisis that caused the refugees involved to flee has ended. The Liberians began coming to the United States in 1991, shortly after the West African country became involved in civil war that evolved eventually into chaos. After elections in 2005 and modest signs of stabilization in Liberia, the Homeland Security Department lifted their temporary protected status last year, making their continued presence illegal as of this Oct. 1. «Although the armed conflict in Liberia ended in 2003, and conditions have improved, I have found that the political and economic situation in Liberia continues to be fragile,» Bush said in the memo. About 3,600 Liberians are living in the United States under temporary protected status, federal officials have said, although activists claim there are thousands more. Many thousands of other Liberians are in the country, either U.S. citizens or under other immigrant statuses.
