WASHINGTON.— Congress will begin its new legislative session next January without resolving the limbo of around 2.2 million undocumented immigrants who would be at risk of deportation, including more than 400,000 beneficiaries of the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program. acronym in English).
So activists urge a solution from the next White House tenant.
The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives approved an ambitious bill in June 2019 to legalize much of the undocumented population, but the Senate has refused to even debate it.
[They approve a measure that legalizes Dreamers and 'Tepesianos'. Legislation has little chance in the Senate]
If the entire Congress does not approve it before the end of the year, legislators would have to start from scratch in the next session that will be installed the week of January 3, 2021, and
there is no indication that they want to take advantage of the short window that remains. to act
.
The first group of immigrants protected by TPS, which includes beneficiaries from Nicaragua and Sudan, would lose protection as of next March.
Last Friday, 213 organizations and civic groups defending immigrants, including Alianza Americas, sent a letter to the Democratic presidential candidate, Joe Biden, asking him to take urgent measures if he wins in the elections on November 3.
An activist from Alianza Américas, Yanira Arias, on the podium, participated in a day of lobbying in front of the Capitol in Washington, in September 2019 to achieve the permanent legalization of "Tepesianos." Photo courtesy of Yanira Arias / Noticias Telemundo
Specifically, the groups asked that, on his first day in the White House, Biden
grant the benefit of "Deferred Enforced Departure"
so that "Tepesianos" avoid deportation when their expiration. permissions.
"These people face an urgent and immediate need for relief," the letter said.
[TPS beneficiaries denounce Trump's "racism" and begin national bus tour to demand permanent legalization]
The groups also sent another similar letter to the president, Donald Trump, should he win re-election, knowing that his administration has only adopted repressive measures against the undocumented population, and promises more of the same if he continues in office. .
The DED would benefit not only the more than 400,000 'Tepesianos', but also about 1.8 million undocumented immigrants from 15 countries that are not covered by TPS, including Guatemala and Venezuela, they indicated in the letter, which was advanced first to Forbes magazine.
If we lose TPS, what will happen to all the social security deductions, will we be able to claim them?
Sept.
17, 202001: 12
Biden released a Latino agenda that includes comprehensive immigration reform to legalize a large part of the undocumented population - something that required the endorsement of a Congress, predictably under Democratic control - but the groups are calling for an immediate response for the "Tepesians."
DED, at the "discretion" of the president
Under current laws, the president has the constitutional power to grant the DED, according to his procedural "discretion", to suspend the deportation of undocumented immigrants, as explained on its website, the Office of Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS, for its acronym in English).
It is that the process of designating a country as a beneficiary of TPS is more complex, and depends on the Department of Homeland Security determining that the conditions on the ground meet the requirements to continue to provide that protection.
TPS is a program approved by Congress in 1990 that protects undocumented immigrants who cannot return to their countries of origin from deportation due to armed conflict, natural disasters - including pandemics - or other "extraordinary" conditions.
The Trump Administration began dismantling TPS in November 2017, arguing that the program was temporary and that conditions in beneficiary countries had improved.
Will TPS entitle me to permanent residence?
Oct. 8, 202004: 38
Several groups have filed lawsuits against the Trump Administration, and for now the legal stay and work permits remain in place thanks to the intervention of the courts.
Unless Congress or the White House act swiftly
in early 2021 to help beneficiaries in El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua and Sudan
, they would be at risk of losing their permits and facing deportation.
The 'Tepesianos' of Nicaragua and Sudan could lose their permits in March, while the Salvadorans would lose it in November.
A stranger in her own country
In a telephone interview with Noticias Telemundo, Yanira Arias, a Salvadoran “Tepesiana” and national campaign manager for Alianza Américas, explained that she helped organize the sending of the letters due to the precarious situation that she and other undocumented immigrants would face next year.
"I would have to pack 20 years of my life in this country, and return to El Salvador, where there is still violence and the situation is still unstable ... I
would be a stranger in my own country,
" said Arias, who received TPS in 2001.
Salvadoran activist Yanira Arias, national campaign manager for Alianza Américas, helped coordinate the sending of letters to Biden and Trump in which more than 213 national groups ask for help for "Tepesianos" Photo courtesy of Yanira Arias / Noticias Telemundo
According to Arias, although the courts have kept the program in place, she knows other beneficiaries who are already losing their jobs, making it difficult to support their families.
It is estimated that 273,000 minors born in the United States have at least one parent covered by TPS, which is why, in Arias's opinion, their deportation would cause greater family instability.
“People feel fear and anxiety… I think that policies have to be formulated that respond to the roots of illegal emigration.
My story is not very different from that of the women who have come in caravans from Honduras, El Salvador or Guatemala ”, he pointed out.
Arias said she fled El Salvador at the age of 27, tired of fighting gender-based violence, which manifested itself in constant harassment and attacks from unknown men.
Now 48, Arias fears that he could again be the target of violence in El Salvador, or face problems reintegrating into the workforce, in a country where, in addition,
he has not contributed for his eventual retirement.
Arias distrusts that Trump can help the "Tepesianos", taking into account that since his first presidential contest he has "demonized" immigrants.
Immigration is not as prominent as an electoral issue this year, but Trump maintains his anti-immigrant rhetoric "to win the sympathy and vote of his base," he said.