Temporary Protected Status (TPS) beneficiaries who had been blocked from a path to legal status under a policy change by a former unlawfully appointed official will once again be able to access permanent residency, thanks to a new settlement.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has agreed to restore this pathway as a result of a lawsuit filed nearly two years ago, which said in part that former unlawfully appointed acting USCIS director and racist loudmouth Ken Cuccinelli had no authority to sign anything in the first place.
“Today’s agreement will allow TPS beneficiaries—many of whom have lived in the U.S. for decades and built deep roots in their communities—to once again seek permanent residency and extinguish the threat of deportation if their TPS protections are revoked,” said Democracy Forward, one of the groups that filed the lawsuit on behalf of seven beneficiaries and CARECEN.
“The December 2019 policy change, disguised as a mere clarification, was one of the Trump administration’s many efforts to eliminate TPS protections for tens of thousands of eligible men and women,” Democracy Forward, the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC), Montagut & Sobral, PC, and Debevoise & Plimpton, LLP said in a statement.
The policy was notably put in place by Cuccinelli, the god-awful know-nothing who once claimed that the Emma Lazarus poem mounted on the Statue of Liberty was about “people coming from Europe.” Organizations said in that lawsuit that Cuccinelli lacked authority to implement the policy, due to the fact that, you know, he actually wasn’t the lawful USCIS director.
That wasn’t opinion, either, it was fact, following a federal judge’s ruling in early 2020 (thanks to a separate lawsuit launched in part by Democracy Forward, CLINIC, and Debevoise & Plimpton, LLP). That same year, the non-partisan Government Accountability Office would also determine that Cuccinelli, along with former unlawfully appointed acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary, Chad Wolf, were unlawfully occupying their positions.
The lawsuit over the policy change was launched on behalf of the TPS holders, groups said. “Now, each one has the opportunity to obtain permanent residence.”
“This is a win for the law & immigrant rights,” Democracy Forward tweeted. “Those impacted are able to reopen & dismiss their removal orders & apply to adjust their status to become permanent residents—which could eliminate the threat of deportation if their TPS protections are revoked in the future.”
Despite the previous administration’s racist efforts to squash the program and deport its beneficiaries, TPS continues to remain a powerful, humanitarian tool recently utilized by the Biden administration to protect vulnerable people from Afghanistan, Sudan, South Sudan, and Ukraine. Advocates have been urging the administration to also take action to designate Cameroon, Ethiopia, and Mauritania for temporary protections, citing civil unrest and humanitarian crises.
“This victory will change the lives of those individuals impacted,” said CARECEN Executive Director Abel Nuñez. “As an organization, we are proud of our continued efforts to defend our community as they integrate into their new home in the U.S. CARECEN will work with those TPS members that qualify under the settlement and also keep fighting to ensure that all TPS beneficiaries who have been in the U.S. for over 20 years and have complied with everything that has been asked of them are able to apply for legal permanent residence.”
Cuccinelli continues to be an anti-immigrant zealot, despite losing his government platform. He’s among the right-wing extremists behind a racist scheme urging Arizona’s governor to use war powers against asylum-seeking families at the southern border. Cuccinelli has claimed a supposed “invasion,” AZ Mirror reports. That’s the same kind of rhetoric used by racist mass murderers, including the man who shot up an El Paso Walmart due to his intense hatred of Mexicans.
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