December 30, 1998
Web posted at: 8:07 p.m. EST (0107 GMT)

MIAMI (CNN) -- Illegal immigrants from Honduras and Nicaragua got a break from the United States on Wednesday, allowing them to extend their U.S. residency while their homelands recover from Hurricane Mitch.

The reprieve will allow an estimated 150,000 immigrants to work in the United States for 18 months in a humanitarian gesture aimed at giving their countries time to rebuild. The hurricane killed thousands of people and left at least a million homeless when it struck Central America in October.

"It is breathing room. We recognize that the road to recovery will be long and arduous," said Doris dner, commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

"The advantage for people coming forward is the advantage of giving them protection. That's what this is -- temporary protected status," Meissner said.

Victims of Hurricane MItch

INS officials also extended a moratorium on deportations of Guatemalans and Salvadorans. But the U.S. government decided not to give them the same reprieve as Hondurans and Nicaraguans because the hurricane damage in their countries was not as serious.

Instead, deportations to El Salvador and Guatemala were suspended for an additional 60 days. Deportations of illegal immigrants to all four countries were supposed to resume January 7.

"There was significant damage in El Salvador and Guatemala, but it did not rise to the level that it did in Honduras and Nicaragua, where over 90 percent of the approximately 3 million people displaced by the hurricane lived," Meissner said.

Most Hondurans and Nicaraguans in the United States are believed to be living in Texas, California, New York and Florida.

The 18-month period runs through June 2000. Applicants will be charged $175 in fees, Meissner said.

"If they come forward and apply for temporary protected status, they are in a situation where they have a temporary immigration status, and they have an authorization to work legally in the country," Meissner said.

Wednesday's action marked only the second time the status has been extended under a federal law allowing immigration officials to give temporary residency and work permits to people whose native countries are wracked by war or disaster.

Its first use was to allow residents of Montserrat, a British colony in the Caribbean, to escape a volcanic eruption that rendered the island nearly uninhabitable.