The Bush administration has extended Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for hundreds of thousands of Central Americans. They get yet another year in the U.S.

Some of them have been here since 1998, others since 2001.

Obviously, this is exactly how the various "guest" worker schemes proposed by Bush and others would work: at the start of the program we'd be promised that they'd have to leave after six years. Then, year after year it would be extended and extended.

Once again: anyone who claims "temporary" workers wouldn't be permanent residents is lying to you. And, this latest episode shows some of the people who'd support keeping our "guests" around:

But Central American leaders and several members of Congress have been pushing for a renewal. Immigrants and their advocates say allowing the special status to expire would devastate not only these individuals but also their families — and the Central American nations — who count on the billions of dollars the immigrants earn in the United States and send home.

Salvadoran President Tony Saca is scheduled to visit Washington Friday.

[Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen] said in a statement that without a renewal of the special residency, the Central Americans would "face deportation back to a country where they may encounter violence, civil unrest or a homeland still recuperating from natural disasters."

What country does Ros-Lehtinen really represent?