Editorial: Minnesota's Liberians deserve an extension

Liberians who are living in Minnesota and other states under temporary protected status (TPS) should be allowed to stay longer. That's the conclusion of "Liberia Is Not Ready," a persuasive joint report by the law firm Dorsey & Whitney and the nonprofit Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights. Local Liberians here under TPS have been hoping for a reprieve since the U.S. Department of Homeland Security decided last year that their status would end on Oct. 1.

The report documents a nation that is only in the early stages of recovering from nearly two decades of brutal civil war -- a nation whose two-year-old government has said it isn't ready to deal with large numbers of returnees. It seems only humane to allow more time for Liberia to restore itself and for displaced Liberians to gain better assurances of stability before they return.

Since war broke out in 1989, thousands of Liberians have been working, building new lives and raising their children in Minnesota, many of them in Minneapolis' northern suburbs. A significant number of them have received repeated extensions of TPS. Some would like to return someday; others would like to become permanent residents here, an option the Liberian government also supports, and which makes sense.

The Dorsey/Advocates' research shows why the concerns of Liberians who want to stay here longer are well-founded. It paints a picture of a fragile postwar nation whose physical, governmental and social infrastructures are still in tatters. Basic sanitation is lacking; health suffers and health services are strained. Unemployment is above 80 percent, and social services are few. Indeed, many Liberians depend on money sent from relatives in the United States and elsewhere for basic sustenance.

The country is also still dealing with internally displaced citizens. About a half a million people were displaced by the war; although the United Nations has helped some return to their homes, thousands are in Liberian refugee camps or living in neighboring countries.

Services are inadequate in rural areas, where an estimated 80 percent were displaced; adding thousands of returnees from America will strain them further. "Unless basic social services are provided and opportunities for sustainable livelihoods are generated in areas of return, there is a strong possibility that returning populations will migrate towards urban centres," the report says. Yet Monrovia's population has doubled, some returnees have found squatters living in their homes, and the judicial system isn't equipped to settle such issues. Ex-combatants are frequently jobless, unstable and in need of rehabilitation, yet programs for them have been limited; increased crime is plaguing Monrovia and many rural areas.

With layers and layers of challenges, still-struggling Liberia is not a place to send families who have stable jobs and homes in cities like Brooklyn Park or Minneapolis -- and whose employers have become their strongest supporters. These families' best hope is in legislation now in the Senate, unless DHS can be persuaded to reverse itself. They, and their nation, deserve a continuance of American help.