Illegal aliens gather to protest the impending end of Temporary Protected Status
Immigrants gather in Newark to protest the impending end of Temporary Protected Status
Monsy Alvarado, North Jersey Record
Published 7:23 p.m. ET Oct. 2, 2018
Faith leaders, advocates and immigrants marched Tuesday outside the federal building in Newark to draw attention to the plight of hundreds of thousands of immigrants who face deportation in the coming months when their temporary permission to live and work here is due to end.
"I have faith that there will be a good result and we will be able to stay,'' said Elva Perlera of Orange, who was among about 50 people who attended the walk. "This is so important for many of us, because many of us didn't understand how important it was to have these protections."
Local immigration advocates organized the march with a group that arrived in New Jersey and is traveling across the country participating in events calling for the preservation of the Temporary Protected Status program, or TPS. The TPS Journey for Justice Caravan started in Los Angeles in mid-August and will spend the next few days in New Jersey, with scheduled stops at Rep. Josh Gottheimer's office in Glen Rock and in Freehold on Wednesday, and in Morristown on Thursday.
The Temporary Protected Status program allows immigrants from certain countries affected by civil war or natural disasters to live and work temporarily in the United States. More than 430,000 people across the country have TPS, including more than 19,700 who were living in New Jersey when they applied for the program, according to 2017 figures from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
The Trump administration has announced that it will end TPS for several countries starting next month through 2020. If immigrants whose temporary protections are ending don't leave and are not able to adjust their legal status, they will join the country's estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants. If they are caught living here illegally, they could face deportation. Many TPS holders have lived in the country for years, own homes, have children who are U.S. citizens and say they cannot leave their families and lives behind.
"One of our goals is to spread the word and educate people of the situation and let them know that we are not what the administration says we are,'' said Felipe Arnoldo Diaz, East Coast coordinator for the National TPS Alliance, the grass-roots organization leading the caravan. "We want to show people we are working families, that we have been here for two decades … and that we have the right to be together with our children."
Proponents of the administration's stricter immigration policies have lauded the end of TPS for some countries, saying it will curtail rampant abuse and that conditions in many of the affected countries have improved to the point where they no longer need the designation.
Immigrant advocates and clergy members are lobbying lawmakers for a legislative solution that would allow TPS holders to become legal permanent residents. One bill, the American Promise Act, would allow citizens from countries designated for TPS to apply for legal status within three years of the passage of the legislation if they show they have lived in the United States for a minimum of three years. Recently, Rep. Chris Smith, R-Monmouth, endorsed the proposal.
Last month, Rep. Mike Coffman, a Republican from Colorado, introduced a bill that would extend TPS for all current participants until Sept. 15, 2021. Advocates said the Republican support was encouraging.
"Having any kind of bipartisan support for any immigration bill is almost impossible these days,'' said Chia-Chia Wang, organizing advocacy director of the American Friends Service Committee in Newark. "That means that we are making a difference."
Mardoel Hernandez, 51, of Rockville, Maryland, is among the TPS holders traveling around the country in the caravan. Hernandez, who is among an estimated 86,000 Hondurans who have had TPS since a hurricane ravaged the country in 1999, came to the United States about 20 years ago and now has a career in real estate. He has bought a house, has a mortgage and wants to stay.
"I've made my whole life here, worked here, paid taxes and followed the rules,'' he said. "We know that not all is lost, and that's why we are working hard to demand that Congress take action."
Elena Quintanilla, 66, of Oakland, California, crossed the border from Honduras 23 years ago, looking for better job opportunities that would allow her to provide for her four daughters. Since then, she said, she hasn't been able to adjust her status, but TPS allowed her to work legally and have a better life.
"We have worked hard, so many years, and now I want to stay and be with my children and they want to separate me from them,'' she said.
The event also included what organizers termed a Jericho Walk, in which participants walked around the sides of the Peter W. Rodino Federal building in silence seven times, holding brief prayers between each lap.
The walk and interfaith prayer was inspired by the Bible story of the Battle of Jericho, where the Israelites fighting the Canaanites marched around the city of Jericho seven times blowing their trumpets and causing the city walls to fall.
Organizers said Tuesday’s walk was held to “bring down the walls’’ of what they termed an unjust immigration system.
TPS-designated countries
https://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/8a3...t=405&fit=cropJeannie Telles, 22, of Fairview, says her parents, originally from El Salvador, have TPS. Telles says if it is taken away she would not have a home to live in and would not be able to finish college. DACA / TPS Rally held on August 29, 2017. (Photo: Kevin Wexler/NorthJersey.com)
Currently, citizens from 10 countries have temporary protected status: Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
More: What is TPS?
More: NJ backs lawsuit challenging Trump administration's effort to end TPS
More: NJ attorney general joins letter asking Congress to protect Haitian, Salvadoran immigrants
Salvadorans make up the majority of TPS holders, with 262,500 of them having the status, followed by citizens of Honduras, who number 86,000, and Haiti, with 58,600, according to figures from USCIS.
The Department of Homeland Security reviews the countries on a regular basis to determine whether conditions have improved enough to allow safe returns.
Under the Trump administration, the Department of Homeland Security, citing improvements, announced that it would end TPS for citizens of Nicaragua and Haiti in January 2019, for those from Nepal in June 2019, El Salvador in September 2019, and Honduras in January 2020. Citizens from Sudan will lose their protections next month.
DHS also announced that it would extend TPS for Yemen and Somalia through March 2020, citing the ongoing armed conflicts in both countries. It also extended TPS for about 7,000 Syrians through September 2019, although it said it would not accept any new applications from Syrians who arrived in the United States after Aug. 1, 2016.
The Trump administration will have to determine whether it will extend TPS to South Sudanese citizens before May, when the current designation is due to expire.
President Barack Obama terminated TPS status for Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone during his administration, but those decisions affected fewer people, a total of around 4,500, according to 2016 figures from USCIS.
Besides members of the American Friends Service Committee, advocates from Wind of the Spirit participated in Tuesday's march.
https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/new-jersey/2018/10/02/tps-immigrants-protest-impending-end-temporary-protected-status/1490855002/
