New York, United States
Two Democratic senators again tabled a bill on Monday that would provide legal permanent residence and a path to citizenship to thousands of temporary protected status (TPS) beneficiaries who fear being deported to the countries they have fled from.
“The insecurity in families, both adults and children, comes at a huge cost, and a heavy price is paid for not knowing what the future holds,” the senator said in a news conference. Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland.
The TPS has given temporary legal residence that now according to the National Forum of Immigration, includes more than 400,000 people from a dozen countries who came to the United States to escape natural disasters or violence and persecution.
The largest groups in the program include approximately 247,700 Salvadorans, of which 79,400 Hondurans, 55,350 Haitians, 14,550 Nepalese, and nearly 7,000 Syrians. Other countries currently designated for TPS are Nicaragua, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan and South Sudan.
The United States government designates accepted countries for TPS and renews those designations every six to 18 months. The designation of the countries is temporary and in many cases expires in December.
In September 2020, a federal appeals court ruled in favor of then-President Donald Trump’s administration, contradicting a previous court order that had prevented the appointments from being canceled. TPS from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua and Sudan. The same order had prevented the termination of the appointments TPS from Honduras and Nepal.
As a result, the beneficiaries of TPS they are now facing uncertainty pending hearings on the program.
The bill entitled “Context for Protecting Countries Under Repression and Emergency” (SECURE) originally entered the Senate with a Republican majority in March 2019 and referred to the Judicial Committee, but was not voted in the plenary of the legislative body.
Permanent status
“TPS receivers are legal here, many of them for decades. They are our neighbors, friends; they are merchants rooted in their communities. And many of them are on the front lines of the fight against the coronavirus”, says Van Hollen.
“The least we can do is give them assurance of permanent status,” added Van Hollen, who co-sponsors the legislation with his Maryland colleague Ben Cardin. According to Van Hollen, the initiative is sponsored by twenty other senators.
Cardin noted that “favorable conditions now exist” for the legislation when Democrats have a majority in the Senate and President Joe Biden has promised a “fair and humane” immigration policy.
“The beneficiaries of TPS They have come to this country legally and are here because of the fear for their safety in their country. They have families in America, some of their kids are US citizens, and we have to keep families together, “said Cardin.
The two senators stressed the importance of transitioning from TPS subject to changing decisions through executive policy to a legislative framework that makes legal residence permanent and opens the way to citizenship for the beneficiaries.
The program TPS for El Salvador it started in March 2001 after earthquakes occurred in January and February of that year in the Central American country, and that of Haiti started in July 2011 in response to an earthquake the previous year.
For its part the TPS from Honduras and that of Nicaragua began providing protection to victims of Hurricane Mitch in November of the previous year in January 1999.