Beneficiaries of TPS express “fear” at the risk of being deported

More than 300,000 immigrants – mostly Central Americans – are at risk of losing their Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in the United States after announcing that negotiations with the administration of President Joe Biden were interrupted this week.

The National TPS Alliance, an organization that brings together immigrants covered by this benefit, said that the negotiations carried out for 16 months “had collapsed” on Tuesday, putting the revalidation of work and stay permits at risk. in the country, which expire at the end of this year, and therefore there is a risk of “being deported”.

José Palma, who is part of the National Alliance work team with the White House lawyers, told the voice of america that the negotiation sought to find a way out of the Ramos vs. Mayorkas lawsuit, in reference to the current Secretary of National Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, filed in a federal court in California when TPS was terminated by the administration of former President Donald Trump in 2018.

“More than a legal decision, it is a political decision. It seems that the Biden administration and the Democratic Party are thinking more about the impact that support can have on the elections than about the well-being of the Tepesian families,” Palma lamented.

It has transpired that once the negotiation deadlock is reached, the lawsuit returns to the courts where it has already gone through several phases for four years, which range from the initial decision and the subsequent processes of the Court of Appeals.

Erasmo Ramos, another leader of the National Alliance, told the VOA the risks families would face if they lost status. “To the By not redesignating TPS to protect hundreds of thousands of Central Americans and Nepalis, President Biden is doing the opposite of what he promised to do for migrant families.”

He considers that on the contrary “he is supporting Trump’s anti-immigrant policies, stripping immigrants of protection and denying our rights,” he said.

Salvadoran immigrant Doris Landaverde, beneficiary of TPS, showed her disappointment with the situation, considering that with Joe Biden’s win in 2020 He projected many hopes and now he sees them broken.

“We thought that we had already come out of this martyrdom. That Tepesian families were living in fear of being separated from their children. I am the mother of three girls: 16, 11 and 9. And it is very difficult, “he said.

The VOA News After announcing the breakdown of the dialogue, he requested a reaction from the White House in this regard, but there was no response.

For its part, upon request for comment, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the agency that manages the immigration issue, indicated that it did not comment on ongoing litigation, but assured that “the current holders of TPS from El Salvador, Nepal, Nicaragua and Honduras will be protected for the next few months.”

Data compiled up to 2018 indicate that some 180,000 Salvadorans were still covered by the immigration benefit until then, some 60,000 Hondurans, more than 50,000 Haitians, and 4,000 Nicaraguans, plus smaller groups of immigrants from other countries.

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