Foreign Relations Committee Chair Robert Menendez said that he welcomes the Biden administration’s decision this week to designate Afghanistan for Temporary Protected Status (TPS), saying that this relief ensures vulnerable people “have the ability to live in peace without fear of being forcibly handed over to the Taliban.”
“I remain troubled, however, that we have not seen similar TPS designations for Cameroon and Ethiopia, two countries that clearly meet the requirements that Congress set forth for TPS designations,” Menendez continued.
Advocates have been raising awareness around the two nations. In Cameroon, human rights advocates have said that deported asylum-seekers have faced abuses ranging from arbitrary arrest, extortion, to rape at the hands of state actors following their return. In Ethiopia, Amnesty International has documented a “ferocious tide of human rights and international humanitarian law violations,” Center for Migration Studies said last year.
But while the Biden administration has designated a number of nations in crisis for temporary status—including Afghanistan and Ukraine—Cameroon and Ethiopia have not been among them. “It is critical that TPS is not politicized to preference some countries over others,” Menendez said. “As I have said before, Black migrants are too often excluded when these important decisions are made.”
House progressives this week also urged the Biden administration to designate Cameroon and Ethiopia for temporary status, as have Afghan advocates, who said in a joint statement this week that they stood in solidarity with Black immigrants.
“The U.S. government must generously afford this basic protection to our Black immigrant communities, including Cameroonians, who have been fighting for designation for years, and who are most disproportionately targeted by immigration enforcement,” the statement said. Cameroon Advocacy Network Founding Member Daniel Tse said the crisis facing Afghanistan “is exactly why TPS was created in the first place. Similarly, tens of thousands of Cameroonians are unable to safely return to Cameroon and it should be recognized.”
“I will continue to urge the Biden administration to utilize TPS for countries experiencing armed conflict, environmental disaster, or extraordinary conditions that prevent people from safely returning home,” Menendez continued. “The United States must continue to lead the world as a safe haven for refugees and migrants who are unable to return home.”
The senior senator from New Jersey released a report in 2019 detailing how the previous administration used the program not to protect vulnerable people, “but the President’s political aims.”
“The report, titled ‘Playing Politics with Humanitarian Protections,’ includes a compilation of over 80 pages of internal communications—troubling letters, memos, and embassy cables—that led President Trump to terminate the TPS designations for El Salvador, Honduras, and Haiti,” Democratic members of the Foreign Relations Committee said. It was also right there in the open: “Trump senior adviser and immigration hard-liner Stephen Miller placed phone calls to DHS Chief of Staff Chad Wolf and top Tillerson advisers telling them to end TPS,” the report said one Washington Post headline read.
Menendez was early to urge temporary status for Ukraine, calling for relief on Feb. 24. Hopefully, further designations will again quickly follow. Click here to take simple and quick action urging the Biden administration to designate Cameroon for protected status.