Senate approves path to citizenship for Liberians facing deportation

The national defense bill included an amendment that gave permanent resident status to Liberians in the Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) program.

By Maya Rao Star Tribune
DECEMBER 17, 2019 — 3:13PM



BRIAN PETERSON – STAR TRIBUNE FILE
The mood at Ebenezer Community Church in Brooklyn Park was jubilant in March 2019, where the sizable Liberian congregation celebrated President Donald Trump’s 11th-hour reversal of a decision to end a DED program that has long protected them from deportation.


Minnesota’s Liberian community celebrated the passage of a long-awaited measure that gives permanent residency to those who have been living here for decades under temporary protections.

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday approved the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, which included an amendment that offered a path to American citizenship for Liberians currently under Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) status. The measure, which passed the House last week and President Donald Trump has said he will sign, would prevent the deportation of many Liberians that was set to take place after March 31.

“We are very happy,” said Erasmus Williams, chairman of the Liberian Immigration Coalition.

“We are pleased. This will bring a lot of relief … It’s something that’s overdue.”

Many Liberians fleeing civil war in the 1990s were given temporary protected status to stay in the U.S. — with no path to American citizenship — and became part of the DED program in 2007. They faced the prospect of deportation under administrations of both parties, with continual extensions.

President Donald Trump twice moved to end the program, saying Liberians could return to their homeland because conditions in the country had improved: it was no longer experiencing armed conflicts and had recovered from a 2014 outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus. But as Liberians’ DED status was set to expire on March 31, 2019, the administration approved a one-year reprieve.

With so many years of uncertainty, “that’s why we are hoping and praying that one day we will be over this because it is a nightmare,” said Alice Cooke, a New Hope recipient of DED.

Liberians in Minnesota this spring vowed to advocate for a permanent solution, noting the uncertainty endured by many in the program who had bought homes, paid taxes, found jobs and had American-born children. Barkon Greaves, a 53-year-old bus driver in Coon Rapids, said his two U.S. born teenagers have asked if their parents will be deported.

“To tell my kids I don’t know my fate, it’s scary,” Greaves said.

Cooke, 56, was not able to bring her now-adult children to the U.S. with her — they stayed in Liberia — but hopes to start the process if she becomes an American citizen.

Once the bill is signed into law, “we will praise our God,” said Cooke, outside a service at Ebenezer Community Church in Brooklyn Park over the weekend. “There will be a good celebration here.”

http://www.startribune.com/senate-ap...ion/566280862/