Implications of Termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Honduras Wreak Havoc on Families and Communities
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In an interview for KDLG, Jeremy Hobson sat down with Marta Connor, a TPS holder from Honduras, and Martin Pineda, an organizer with the Central American Resource Center, to discuss the fear and desolation that has set in for Honduran TPS holders and their families since the program preventing their deportation has been terminated by the Trump Administration.
An excerpt of the interview is below:
On what the decision to end temporary protected status could mean
Marta Connor: “It means for me, separation of families. All those families, they have their children here, some of them even have grandchildren. And that means separation.
“With this administration, there’s a high, high … possibility that [I will be separated from my children]. But my hopes are really high. And the National TPS Alliance, we are working together to see if we could change the mentality of this administration.”
On possible action that TPS holders could take if Congress or President Trump don’t act on their behalf
Martin Pineda: “At this moment right now, there’s different kinds of adjustments that could be made. For example, like in certain states, if you have U.S. citizen children of age 21 or older who can petition for you. There’s different varieties of ways to get adjustments of status. But in reality for the larger population of TPS holders, at this moment, there is no pathway to citizenship or residency at this moment.”
On efforts moving forward
Marta Connor: “I’m going to continue fighting. I am a member of the National TPS Alliance. I’m not only a member, but I’m also a person who fights, and moves, and I’m just telling people to come out and speak their voice, because we have rights here in this country. We’ve been living here for so long. When I hear ‘temporary,’ it’s like, OK, we already … we have homes here. We have businesses here, we have our children, our grandchildren. So we just can’t pick up and go to a country — especially for our children to move to a country where they really … this is their country. This is their country. And also we as TPS holders, we recognize this country as our country, too. And we have been paying our taxes, and working. We’re very hard-working people here.”
