Honduran TPS Holders Discuss Impact of Decision On Their Lives
According to McClatchy and The Washington Post, the Trump Administration has terminated Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for yet another country in the throes of unrest and chaos. This time the country is Honduras, a country plagued by violence, social turmoil, and recurring natural disasters that left over 57,000 Hondurans in the U.S. with TPS.
TPS holders are among the most heavily vetted immigrants in the U.S. and are contributing, tax paying members of American society. The program’s cancellation will ultimately force 57,000 Hondurans back to a country that is in no condition to receive them. This decision is another in a series of TPS terminations that puts some 300,000 legal immigrants with deep American roots on a path to deportation.
Honduran TPS holders and immigration advocates commented below on the program’s cancellation. For press requests, please contact julia@npstrategygroup.com.
Jailene, TPS holder from New York City, said,
“‘I’m only 16 years old, but I’ve already lived through one unthinkable tragedy. My older brother was killed 10 years ago, when I was just a kid. But today’s decision from DHS means I have to live that nightmare all over again, to be separated from another member of my family. But, we aren’t alone in this. There are hundreds of thousands of families just like ours whose lives have been turned upside down with the cancellation of TPS. Our last hope hope lies with Congress, that they’ll find a way to build legislation to keep us together in the US. I can’t imagine life without my mom.”
Orlando Lopez, Business Owner and TPS Holder from Miami, said,
“This is disastrous for me, as it is for my children in Honduras. If I’m deported I won’t be able to help them in college. When I’m not able to provide for them, what choice will they have except to come here. Honestly, in Honduras you can’t live. They are practically sending me to my death.
“This is practically my country. I’m a person with a clean record. I have a house, I have a business; I’ve made my life here. They told us they would be sending back people with criminal records, not hard-working people like they are doing.”
Patricia Montes, Executive Director of Centro Presente, said,
“Our communities continue to be rocked to the core with every new action by this racist administration. Honduras is no ready to receive and reintegrate immigrants that are being deported from the United States and other countries like Mexico. Every year one hundred thousand Hondurans leave their country due to the level of extreme violence they confront daily and additionally, this year, the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, declared that Honduras is the poorest country in Latin America, displacing Haiti.”
