Date: Sep 24, 2021
Recently we’ve been disheartened with the latest immigration and asylum news. We’ve seen the racist and abusive treatment by Border Patrol agents towards Haitian migrants and babies on the shoulders of their fathers crossing the Rio Grande. What’s more—the Supreme Court ordered the Biden Administration to reinstate MPP, the cruel policy that forces asylum seekers to wait in Mexico at the risk of rape, extortion or worse during their asylum proceedings. Amidst all of this frustration and sadness it can be easy to lose hope and feel like our efforts were in vain.
But hope is not lost. We’ve been working tirelessly, with you, in our efforts to demand a pathway to citizenship for our TPSianos. And our efforts have paid off. The administration extended Temporary Protected Status (TPS) until December 31, 2022 for El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, and Sudan. This means the TPS beneficiaries from those countries will be able to live and work in the United States without fear of deportation until then, but it is not enough. Permanent protections are urgent as natural disasters and political instability are decimating these countries. To send our community members back to these situations would be inhumane and just plain wrong.
We took to the streets in Washington D.C. on Tuesday at a rally to welcome back Congress and demand a pathway to citizenship for immigrants including our TPSianos. We may not be able to walk the halls of power just yet but we will make our voices heard loud and clear: we demand permanent protections now! And we won’t stop sounding the alarm until permanent protections are in sight.
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What Can You Do?
Keep pressuring your members of Congress that a pathway to citizenship is essential! And stay tuned for more actions to protect the asylum seekers from Haiti and others arriving at our southern border. We must protect our community members who have done so much for this country. We are a nation founded by immigrants and our policies should reflect that, not send them back to harm’s way.
