Temporary Protected Status (TPS) Holders Continue on Their Mission to Advocate for Keeping Their Families Together
TPS Expiration Dates:
Sudan, 11/2/2018
Nicaragua, 1/5/2019
Nepal, 6/24/2019
Haiti, 7/22/2019
El Salvador, 9/9/2019
Honduras, 1/5/2020
Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders and immigration advocates on the TPS caravan “Journey for Justice” made a stop in San Francisco on their nationwide tour. In San Francisco, TPS holders held a press conference at city hall with community leaders to tell their stories and advocate for stopping the looming family separation crisis that will ensue if more than 400,000 TPS holders — and parents to 270,000 US citizen children — are forcibly deported back to countries they do not consider home.
Listen to the KPFA radio segment featuring TPS holders from the caravan here.
Highlights from the San Francisco Patch article are below and available in full here:
A group of immigrants traveling the country to bring awareness to people living in the U.S. under Temporary Protected Status made a stop in San Francisco Monday afternoon to hold a rally.
The TPS Caravan for Justice, as the activists are called, are visiting more than 50 cities across the U.S. over a 12-week period to highlight the Trump Administration’s decision to end the program for some.
[…]
In March, a lawsuit filed by nine immigrants from countries affected by the TPS changes and five of their U.S. citizen children is seeking a preliminary injunction blocking the termination of their status.
Cristina Morales, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said at today’s rally that the decision early this year by the Trump Administration to end TPS for some has already impacted her and her family “really bad.”
Morales said, “If we don’t stop this administration, more families are going to be on the same boat.
“It’s hard for me to place my family in a situation where they have to decide to go back with me to a country they don’t belong to or to stay without me. And it’s not fair for me to go back. I don’t know that country. I’ve been here for so long; for twenty years. This is my home. I belong here,” she said.
According to the group National TPS Alliance, if TPS were ended for all countries, the termination would affect as many as 450,000 TPS holders, in addition to their 270,000 U.S.-born children.
“Without TPS, without having protections, it will be really easy for the government to get rid of us. They are going to send us with no excuses; they’re going to separate us from our families. And we don’t want that. We want justice. And we need all your help,” Morales said.
