From the “we’ve never met an undocumented immigrant we didn’t like” file, as reported in Pakistan-based Dawn.com:
US lawmakers have pledged to get more aid for the Oct 8 quake victims in Pakistan and are also backing a bi-partisan bill allowing undocumented Pakistani nationals in the US to visit their relatives in their native country.
“It is time for coordinated efforts to help the victims of this disaster,” Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee told a meeting of the Pakistan Caucus on Thursday evening. Ms Lee, a Democratic legislator from Texas and a prominent member of the caucus, is also a co-sponsor of the bipartisan bill which seeks to grant temporary protected status to Pakistani nationals living in the US.
The bill, if passed, will allow undocumented Pakistanis living in the US to travel to Pakistan and come back to the US on a special permit under Section 244 of the US Immigration and Nationality Act.
The temporary protected status is granted to aliens who do not legally qualify as refugees but are reluctant to return to a potentially dangerous situation. It allows them to temporarily remain in the United States.