FIRM Denounces DHS Decision to end TPS program for Salvadorian
St. Paul, MN – FIRM, a group of immigrants and children of immigrants from the Philippines working for racial and immigrant justice in Minnesota, strongly denounces the decision by the Department of Homeland Security to end the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program for over 200,000 Salvadorans who came to the United States after a devastating earthquake hit El Salvador in 2001. They now join the 45,000 Haitians who came to America with TPS seeking safety and stability for their families in the wake of a similarly devastating earthquake but who now find their lives upended with the threat of deportation.
“TPS embodies the best of what we aspire to be as Americans, a country of immigrants that views our global neighbors with compassion and offers them a safe haven and chance to build a new life in a land of opportunity” Greg King, FIRM Board Member, states, “In ending a successful and popular bipartisan program and putting at risk Americans who have been part of their communities for nearly two decades, we have yet another stark reminder of how out-of-the-mainstream the xenophobic and bigoted worldview of this Presidential administration is.” Begun under the Bush Administration, the TPS program for Salvadorans has been extended without controversy multiple times by both the Bush and Obama White Houses.
“The reality is that there is no rationale, either for security or economic reasons, to force these people to leave America,” added FIRM President Maryam Beltran. “On the contrary, targeting vital and contributing Salvadoran communities for deportation will tear apart families, cause community instability, and disrupt many businesses and jobs that they have established over the last 16 years. They are, for all intents and purposes, American. And, of course, there is a very real risk to the safety of those sent back to El Salvador, where they may have no family or job prospects and where there are higher levels of poverty and crime.” In requesting continued TPS protections for Salvadorans, the government of El Salvador has cited drought, poverty, and gang violence as continuing problems. The United States Chamber of Commerce has also urged the administration to extend TPS, citing labor shortages in jobs most often filled by new immigrants, such as construction.
As with the DACA program, TPS represented a popular, if piecemeal, pathway to legal residency for immigrants, with historically strong bipartisan support for its compassionate underpinnings. It has also been a proven economic success, with TPS recipients participating in the labor force at even higher rates than the average American citizen. FIRM urges legislators to act swiftly to create a legal pathway to permanent residency for Salvadorans and others who have lost TPS and now have permission to remain in the United States only until September of 2019.
####
FIRM is a non-profit and non-partisan organization founded in 2016 by a group of Filipinx community leaders in response to the rise in anti-immigrant rhetoric and bigotry against marginalized communities.