Deferred Enforced Departure Extended for Liberians
President Obama had announced his decision on the extension of Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) through Sept. 30, 2011 for qualified Liberian nationals and also for those who resided in Liberia without nationality. Consequently, the employment authorization for Liberians who were covered under the Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) has been extended automatically by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
The existing Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) will be automatically extended after six months. With this automatic extension, the eligible Liberians will now be able to continue working and simultaneously file their applications for new EADs. The new EADs will cover twelve months of the DED extension.
The Deferred Enforced Departure was actually planned to end for the Liberian nationals on March 31, 2010. But certain foreign policy reasons determined by President Obama necessitate the continual of deferring for 18 months, the removal of any Liberian national, or a person without nationality who last resided in Liberia, or who is residing in the United States under a grant of DED as of March 31, 2010 from the United States.
The Liberians who do not have a Temporary Protected Status (TPS) as on September 30, 2007 are not eligible for the Deferred Enforced Departure. USCIS grants a TPS to eligible foreign nationals from certain countries or part of countries where there has been a recent chaos or disaster. The DED is not applicable to even criminals or persons who have been barred to Temporary Protected Status. Additionally persons on whom the United States shows interest to remove are ineligible.
USCIS, besides the automatic extension of the employment authorization for those Liberian nationals who have been covered under the Deferred Enforced Departure, has further planned to issue a notice in the Federal Register which will contain instructions for the Liberian nationals to acquire employment authorization for the rest of the DED extension.