No Regional Movement Regime - and One Status That Is Granted to a Country Rather Than a Person
The United States belongs to no free movement regime. Nothing lets a national of any state in this corpus enter and stay on nationality, and the one trade agreement that creates a work category reaches Mexico and Canada alone. What does exist, and has no equivalent anywhere else recorded here, is temporary protected status: a designation made for a foreign state as a whole. The Attorney General may designate a state where there is an ongoing armed conflict making return unsafe; where an earthquake, flood, drought, epidemic or other environmental disaster has temporarily disrupted living conditions and the state has officially requested designation; or where extraordinary and temporary conditions prevent nationals from returning safely. Nationals of a designated state may then remain - not because of anything about them, but because of what happened at home.
At a glance
- A regional free movement regime
- None
Established by reading section 1254a of title 8 of the United States Code, quoted below: the only status in that section reaching a whole nationality is a temporary designation made for a foreign state, not a movement right.
- What reaches a whole nationality instead
- Temporary protected status, designated state by state
- The three grounds
- Armed conflict, environmental disaster, or extraordinary and temporary conditions
- Who must ask, for the disaster ground
- The foreign state itself, officially
Section 1254a(b)(1)(B)(iii).
- What it is not
- A path to permanent residence - the statute grants a temporary status
Exceptions by origin
No exceptions recorded
Nothing we have read treats any nationality differently for this topic. The rule above applies to everyone.
What the law says
«(b) Designations (1) In general The Attorney General, after consultation with appropriate agencies of the Government, may designate any foreign state (or any part of such foreign state) under this subsection only if— (A) the Attorney General finds that there is an ongoing armed conflict within the state and, due to such conflict, requiring the return of aliens who are nationals of that state to that state (or to the part of the state) would pose a serious threat to their personal safety; (B) the Attorney General finds that— (i) there has been an earthquake, flood, drought, epidemic, or other environmental disaster in the state resulting in a substantial, but temporary, disruption of living conditions in the area affected, (ii) the foreign state is unable, temporarily, to handle adequately the return to the state of aliens who are nationals of the state, and (iii) the foreign state officially has requested designation under this subparagraph; or (C) the Attorney General finds that there exist extraordinary and temporary conditions in the foreign state that prevent aliens who are nationals of the state from returning to the state in safety, unless the Attorney General finds that permitting the aliens to remain temporarily in the United States is contrary to the national»The designation power and its three grounds. The quotation ends where the stored line ends, inside the national interest proviso.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Government Publishing Office's authenticated repository. The United States Code is published here edition by edition, one HTML file per section, at an address that names the edition year - and a link service resolves a title and section number to the current edition's file.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: An edition is a snapshot: the 2024 edition states the law as of a date in 2024 and says nothing about amendments made since. The Code is itself a compilation of acts, and for titles not enacted into positive law the Statutes at Large govern where the two differ. Nothing here carries the regulations, which are in the Code of Federal Regulations, or the annual notices that fill in the numbers these sections leave open.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
Practical notes
Which states stand designated, and until when, is published by the Department of Homeland Security notice by notice. This record states the statutory grounds and does not reproduce the list, because the list changes and a reader who finds a stale one here would be worse off than with nothing.
Designation is of a state. It is the clearest example in this corpus of a rule that reaches a person entirely through the country they come from.
- consolidates8 U.S.C. § 1254a, temporary protected status
GovInfo, U.S. Government Publishing Office · consolidated to 2024
About this source
The Government Publishing Office's authenticated repository. The United States Code is published here edition by edition, one HTML file per section, at an address that names the edition year - and a link service resolves a title and section number to the current edition's file.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: An edition is a snapshot: the 2024 edition states the law as of a date in 2024 and says nothing about amendments made since. The Code is itself a compilation of acts, and for titles not enacted into positive law the Statutes at Large govern where the two differ. Nothing here carries the regulations, which are in the Code of Federal Regulations, or the annual notices that fill in the numbers these sections leave open.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source