Immigrants plan hunger strike to keep TPS

NEW YORK, USA — A group of Salvadorans, Hondurans and Nicaraguans plan to start a hunger strike on Friday near the White House in Washington to demand that the government of President Joe Biden keep alive a temporary immigration status known as TPS that expires at the end of the year.

Members of the TPS National Alliance association told the AP on Wednesday that they will hold the strike to get the Biden administration to extend immigration relief for another 18 months or expand it to cover more Central Americans.

At the moment the TPS and its corresponding work permits are valid until December 31.

“We want to remind Biden of what he promised us,” said Arnoldo Díaz, a Salvadoran member of the executive committee of the National TPS Alliance, referring to the promise of the now US president during his electoral campaign to support migrants with TPS so that they can stay in the United States. “We will go on a hunger strike until the government gives us a positive response.”

The United States designates a country with TPS (Temporary Protection Status, in English) if it presents conditions that prevent its nationals from returning to it safely or if that country cannot cope with their return.

TPS prevents the deportation of those who have it in the United States but not equivalent to a permanent residence. It is estimated that some 57,000 Hondurans, 2,550 Nicaraguans and some 180,000 Salvadorans benefit from TPS in the United States, according to official data.

Immigrants who recently arrived in the United States cannot get it because the United States welcomes only those who arrived within specific time frames decades ago, such as after the destruction caused by Hurricane Mitch in 1999.

In addition to the National TPS Alliance, immigrants from other groups such as Alianza Américas or the Florida Immigrant Coalition also plan to protest in Washington on Friday to request the extension and expansion of TPS. They will do it in front of the offices of the Immigration and Citizenship Services. The Alliance hunger strike is planned in Plaza Lafayette, across from the White House.

Diaz plans to participate and stop eating for at least three days until he is replaced by another protester, he explained. The group hopes to have 10 people on hunger strike indefinitely – with relief every several days – until government action is achieved.

Spokesmen for the Department of Homeland Security, which enforces immigration regulations, did not immediately respond to AP questions about the hunger strike and the request of the so-called “Tepesians.”

Immigrant activists have been asking the US Congress for years to pass an immigration reform that includes TPS beneficiaries, who ask for permanent residence instead of a temporary status that must be extended every several months.

Former President Donald Trump, who favored heavy-handed measures against illegal immigration, announced plans to end to TPS but families benefiting from the program filed lawsuits in court in 2018 so that the status would not end. The courts ruled in his favor but the Trump administration appealed.

Lawsuits have kept TPS alive until now. The Biden administration inherited the appeal and spent months in dialogue with the plaintiffs to see if a solution could be found. The talks failed and that battle has returned to court.

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