Joaquin Castro of Texas and Adriano Espaillat of New York lead more than 80 House members in urging the Biden administration to expand work and deportation relief for more than one million Central American immigrants already in the United States.
Lawmakers write that “extraordinary” environmental and political conditions merit Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation for Guatemala, and redesignation for Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. “These countries have been dealing with the aftermath of such events for years and as conditions continue to worsen and new challenges arise, the United States should provide temporary protection and refuge,” lawmakers wrote.
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“The pressures of the November 2020 hurricanes compounded with the long-term effects of climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic have worsened food insecurity and violence in countries in Central America,” lawmakers write, noting that the environmental disasters interrupted critical remittances flowing from the U.S., and left long-lasting damage to essential healthcare and educational infrastructure.
“The changing political dynamics in these countries also underscore the difficulties individuals face in returning home,” lawmakers continued. “For example, the crackdown on civil society, journalists, and other dissidents in Nicaragua over the last few years has worsened to the point where return for many Nicaraguans means imprisonment or other forms of punishment.”
TPS, signed into law under President George H.W. Bush, allows immigrants fleeing civil conflict, natural disaster, and other life-threatening conditions, and who are already here in the United States, to work legally. The designation critically protects these immigrants from deportation for a period of 18 months.
“We believe that conditions on the ground in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua constitute ‘extraordinary and temporary conditions’ that prevent nationals from safely returning,” lawmakers say. “Furthermore, these designations would provide the U.S. government with an important tool to address root causes of migration from Central American countries by helping increase the flow of remittances and supporting government efforts to address in-country conditions without the additional tax of a large influx of individuals forced to return home.”
More than 30 senators had earlier this year urged relief for El Salvador, Honduran, and Nicaragua, similarly noting extreme weather events, food insecurity, and political unrest. That letter was signed by the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which previously released a report detailing how the previous administration cruelly and politically targeted the program and its beneficiaries, many of whom have U.S. citizen children.
The American Immigration Council estimates that TPS holders from El Salvador, Honduras, and Haiti have 273,000 U.S. citizen children. “If these TPS designations are terminated, many of these parents will become undocumented.”
The Biden administration last month designated Cameroon for TPS. “The current conditions in Cameroon made it a textbook case for TPS designation,” advocates said at the time. “Other majority-Black countries, with very similar conditions, must also receive TPS designation immediately. We hope Mauritania with the widespread practice of enslaving its Black population and Ethiopia with the armed conflict and humanitarian crisis in its Tigray region will also receive TPS designation soon.”
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