By Jen­nifer Kay, Asso­ci­ated Press

MIAMI — With their home­land rav­aged by an earth­quake, more than 50,000 Haitians have applied to legally stay and work in the U.S. and immi­gra­tion advo­cates are urg­ing oth­ers not to miss their chance.

The dead­line to apply for tem­po­rary pro­tected sta­tus is July 20. Only Haitians who were already liv­ing in the U.S. ille­gally when the earth­quake struck Jan. 12 are eligible.

Tem­po­rary pro­tected sta­tus, or TPS, allows immi­grants from coun­tries expe­ri­enc­ing armed con­flict or envi­ron­men­tal dis­as­ters to stay and work in the U.S. for 18 months.

As of June 4, 51,881 appli­ca­tions have been processed, more than half of them in Florida, accord­ing to U.S. Cit­i­zen­ship and Immi­gra­tion Ser­vices. About 11 per­cent have been rejected for being incom­plete or lack­ing the proper fee.

Fed­eral offi­cials ini­tially said they expected about 100,000 to 200,000 Haitians to apply for tem­po­rary pro­tected sta­tus. The gov­ern­ment now says that’s actu­ally the num­ber of appli­ca­tions they can han­dle. They expect about 70,000 appli­ca­tions by mid-July.

Immi­gra­tion advo­cates say some Haitians who are eli­gi­ble won’t apply because they don’t have $470 for appli­ca­tion fees, or because they fear step­ping for­ward will only lead to trou­ble and depor­ta­tion to Haiti.

“We under­stand this com­mu­nity is going through incred­i­ble hard­ship,” CIS spokes­woman Ana San­ti­ago said. “We’re urg­ing peo­ple to please reg­is­ter, because this is some­thing that will help you deal with the situation.”

The Hait­ian com­mu­nity cen­ter Sant La in Miami offers small loans to some appli­cants. Oth­ers have been try­ing to save up the money before the dead­line, instead of ask­ing immi­gra­tion offi­cials for a fee waiver.

Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Gep­sie Metel­lus said some Haitians regard the offer of tem­po­rary pro­tected sta­tus war­ily, believ­ing the doc­u­men­ta­tion just makes it eas­ier to deport them later. They don’t see it lead­ing to bet­ter pay­ing jobs that can sup­port their fam­i­lies in the U.S. and in Haiti.

“All we can do is debunk the myths that are out there,” Metel­lus said. “We encour­age peo­ple to apply and point out that the gov­ern­ment knows where you are now, and they’ve got big­ger fish to fry.”

Manouse Jean of Miami said tem­po­rary pro­tected sta­tus will be a relief from years of fre­quent relo­ca­tions to elude immi­gra­tion author­i­ties after her appeal for asy­lum was denied. She fled Haiti’s polit­i­cal insta­bil­ity in 1999.

“I used to be afraid to work, to go walk­ing in the streets. To catch the bus, my heart would be beat­ing so fast,” the 33-year-old said Thurs­day after drop­ping off doc­u­ments for her TPS appli­ca­tion at the Arch­dio­cese of Miami’s Catholic Legal Services.

She joined hun­dreds of peo­ple who packed a Hait­ian neigh­bor­hood church in Jan­u­ary for infor­ma­tion about tem­po­rary pro­tected sta­tus. She hopes TPS also will allow her to pur­sue train­ing for licensed prac­ti­cal nurses so she can find work car­ing for earth­quake sur­vivors if she even­tu­ally is deported to Haiti.

“If I can be an LPN, and if immi­gra­tion sends me back, I will have some­thing to sur­vive with,” Jean said. “With TPS, I am happy. I’m not scared anymore.”

Haitians who miss the July dead­line will not be able to apply again if the U.S. renews tem­po­rary pro­tected sta­tus for Haiti, as it has for more than a decade for Cen­tral Amer­i­can coun­tries that had to rebuild after a 1998 hurricane.

“If they don’t get in this time, they’re going to be sorry because the doors to this TPS will be closed to them for­ever,” Metel­lus said.

Haiti’s gov­ern­ment and Hait­ian advo­cates in the U.S. for years pleaded for TPS after hur­ri­canes, mas­sive floods, food riots and polit­i­cal tur­moil in the Caribbean coun­try. Their pleas were denied, until the cat­a­strophic earth­quake five months ago.

Since then, the U.S. also tem­porar­ily stopped deport­ing Haitians, even those in deten­tion. About 31,000 Haitians have orders to leave, accord­ing to U.S. Immi­gra­tion and Cus­toms Enforce­ment. Hait­ian migrants inter­dicted at sea by the U.S. Coast Guard con­tinue to be returned to their home­land; nearly 600 since October.

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