Earlier this month, a federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s plans to end Temporary Protected Status for immigrants seeking refuge in the United States following disasters in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Haiti and Sudan. The four countries were set to lose TPS status over the next year, putting three hundred thousand people at risk of deportation.
Still, TPS holders and their supporters are traveling the country by bus to underscore the importance of the program to recipients themselves and the country. This week they’ll stop in Durham.
The National TPS Alliance’s Journey for Justice started in California and will end in Washington D.C. November 8. Along the way TPS recipients and their advocates are sharing their experiences, with the goal of raising awareness and building support for recipients.
TPS is extended to people from countries that experience disasters, allowing them to live and work in the U.S. while they’re home countries are unsafe. The temporary status is granted to countries for six to eighteen months at a time, but past administrations have routinely renewed the designations. Trump – who has continuously sought to roll back legal and illegal immigration with drastic policies, racist rhetoric and falsehoods about immigration – is taking a different approach. In addition to the four countries in the October ruling, the administration has also ended TPS for immigrants from Honduras and Nepal.
The National TPS Alliance rolls into Durham Thursday and will hold a forum in CCB plaza downtown at six p.m.
I weep for the American worker.