US President Donald Trump on Tuesday issued a memorandum [text] announcing his decision not to extend the Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) [materials] protection for Liberians that had been in place since the 1990s.

In the memo, Trump justified this action by explaining that the situations in Liberia, namely the civil war that had prompted the protected status in the 1990s and the Ebola outbreak in 2014, have improved and an extension of the DED status is no longer necessary. The protections for Liberians began under former president Bill Clinton and were renewed by both George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

The Trump administration has implemented a “wind-down” period of 12 months to allow former DED protected individuals who are not able to apply for other programs to make arrangements for leaving the country. Liberians benefiting from the DED protection will have to leave the country by March 31, 2019, or face deportation.