Donald Trump Will Not Grant Temporary Protection For Bahamians Following Hurricane Dorian

Donald Trump will not grant temporary protection to Bahamians seeking refuge after the destruction caused by Hurricane Dorian.

Hurricane Dorian has destroyed several parts of the Bahamas, and now many islanders are looking to relocate to the States temporarily, but Trump isn’t allowing it, according to a senior administration official.

“The Bahamians impacted by Hurricane Dorian are facing a humanitarian crisis, and the American government, international partners and private organizations continue to support them with aid and services,” a White House official told CBS News. “At this time, we do not plan to invoke Temporary Protected Status for those currently in the United States.” He also added that some of the people who would temporarily move “could be bad people.”

The U.S. has previously granted TPS for people fleeing nations who were affected by large-scale natural disasters. The Trump administration has been trying to put an end to some of those status grants, trying to push the issue to courts. The act was established by Congress in 1990 and is intended to protect foreign nationals in the U.S. from being sent back to their native lands.

The United Nations estimates that the damage from the hurricane has left more than 70,000 people homeless. The death toll is also rising daily. But Trump says that if Bahamians want to enter the U.S., they will need to have “totally proper documentation.”

“I don’t want to allow people that weren’t supposed to be in the Bahamas to come into the United States including some very bad people,” the Trump told reporters on the White House South Lawn Tuesday.