Former Ambassadors from Honduras and Panama Speak Out Against the Administration’s Termination of Honduran TPS Program
Last Friday, the Trump Administration unjustly ended Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Honduras. In an op-ed with the Washington Post, former Honduran Ambassador, James Nealon, and former Panama Ambassador, John Feeley, denounce the Administration’s decision and spell out why over 57,000 Honduran TPS holders should be allowed to keep living and working in the U.S..
Find an excerpt of the op-ed below:
“As former American ambassadors with long experience in Central America and with the TPS program, we have to ask: Why does the administration think this makes sense as an “America First” policy? Why would they take people who legally work, pay taxes, own homes, run businesses, employ others and obey the law, and shove them into the shadows?
“The justifications for termination are twofold: The administration reminds us that temporary protected status was always meant to be temporary. It also argues that the original conditions for which TPS was granted — the devastating Hurricane Mitch in 1998 that killed more than 7,000 people in Honduras alone — no longer exist.
[…]
“Put yourself in their shoes. Would you voluntarily return to the still-troubled country you left two decades ago when you have been striving to live the American Dream? Neither would we. And, let’s face it. This isn’t who we are. We are a nation of immigrants, and it’s in our interest that we keep that dream alive for future generations.”
Read the full Washington Post article here.
