WASHINGTON — Seven members of Florida’s Congressional delegation have signed a bipartisan letter urging the Biden Administration to grant more Nicaraguans Temporary Protected Status.

What You Need To Know

  • The lawmakers say the Department of Homeland Security should re-designate TPS for Nicaragua due to its “worsening” socio-political and humanitarian crises

  • A Pew Research Center report shows Florida has the largest concentration, 37%, of the estimated 450,000 Nicaraguans in the United States

  • More than 40 members of Congress, Republicans and Democrats, have signed the letter. 

The lawmakers say the Department of Homeland Security should re-designate TPS for Nicaragua due to its “worsening” socio-political and humanitarian crises.

According to a Pew Research Center report, Florida has the largest concentration, 37%, of the estimated 450,000 Nicaraguans in the United States.

Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick said that in some cases, individuals' Nicaraguan citizenship has been taken away simply due to political opposition. 

"President (Daniel) Ortega is continuously doing human rights violations, suppressing the press or any kind of political opposition. And there's no sights that I can see where democracy is flourishing," said Cherfilus-McCormick.

Cherfilus-McCormick and more than 40 other House members have sent a joint letter to the Biden Administration asking the Department of Homeland Security to re-designate Nicaragua for Temporary Protected Status, allowing Nicaraguans to legally live and work in the U.S. 

"It's been a bipartisan letter, you'll find that Republicans and Democrats agree on this issue," she said. "And we agree that there is no way that we're going to let close to half a million people be stuck in the United States without having any way to work, or have to leave, or be here illegally. It would just be inhumane to do such a thing."

Over the summer, the Department of Homeland Security said it would extend the designation of TPS for Nicaragua for 18 months, through July of 2025, but that only applies to a small group of Nicaraguans already in the program.

"TPS re-designation, the difference is that it expands the amount of people who can go in," said Democratic Rep. Maxwell Frost. "We want to see new people given the ability to get into the TPS program, not just the extension of that period for folks already in it. And so re-designation is so important for that very reason."

Spectrum News asked DHS if the agency had any response to the letter. In a statement, a DHS spokesperson told Spectrum News, “DHS responds to congressional correspondence directly via official channels, and the Department will continue to respond appropriately to Congressional oversight."