Temporary Protected Status will not be recommended by the U.S. State Department for Columbian citizens living in the United States according to information conveyed to Columbian officials.  Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, is granted by the U.S. to immigrants who are forced to flee their countries due to natural disasters or war.  However, the United States believes that the security conditions in Columbia have improved enough to reduce the need for TPS to be extended to Columbians.

TPS for Peruvians and Columbians is currently part of the proposed Andean Adjustment Act which is pending in Congress.  At least 258,173 Columbians are legal residents in America, but an estimated two million more are thought to live in the United States illegally.

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Michael J. Garcia has been nominated to the position of Assistant Secretary of DHS for ICE.  The Senate voted by unanimous consent to refer Mr. Garcia’s nomination to the Senate Judiciary Committee for a period not to exceed thirty days.

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USCIS is planning to shift certain live telephone assistance back to service centers.  The final decision will be determined over the next several weeks upon USCIS analysis of the current system.

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Individuals who registered under NSEERS, the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, are required to reregister within ten days of the date they registered last year.  Each individual’s deadline is based on the original date on which he registered last year.

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Representatives from the Alliance for International Educational and Cultural Exchange and the Association of International Practical Training and NAFSA met with staff of the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration to discuss new procedures for a Memorandum of Understanding between the DHS and SSA.  The new procedures should assist the SSA in verifying the status of F and J visa status holders more efficiently.  The projected time for implementation is December 1. 

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The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has temporarily suspended the clinical J-1 waiver program.  The waiver program allows foreign medical students studying in the United States to forgo the home residency requirement of the J-1 visa by working in a medically underserved area in the United States. 

The HHS waiver program was first implemented on June 12 of this year.  It was designed to fill the void created by the post-September 11 suspension of the US Department of Agriculture clinical waiver program for J-1 physicians.  HHS has not indicated when the program will go back online. State 30 officials have been complaining privately that the move by HHS is unreasonable particularly since a number of states changed their waiver programs to account for the new HHS program.