The Temporary Protected Status immigration program was enacted into law in 1990. Its original intent was to give a brief safe haven to aliens in the U.S. without regard to their legal or illegal status when man-made situations or natural disasters temporarily made return to their countries unsafe.

The law gives the homeland security secretary authority to designate the foreign states whose nationals will be granted Temporary Protected Status. Aliens given such status—including those who were illegally in the U.S. and unknown to authorities before coming forward to be registered—are eligible for employment in the U.S., which, needless to say, is a huge draw factor. Even those from ineligible countries have on occasion come forward to try their luck at getting away with a quick nationality change using bogus documents.

The law provides that original grants of the protected status may range in length from six to 18 months, with the possibility of extensions ad infinitum. And therein lies one of the major flaws in the way the law was drafted (another being that it can be granted to aliens who entered and remained........

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