Trump Administration Continues to Grow List of People to be Exiled to Danger
Statement of Mary Meg McCarthy, Executive Director, National Immigrant Justice Center
CHICAGO (May 4, 2018) – The National Immigrant Justice Center condemns the Trump administration’s announcement that it will terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 57,000 Hondurans living and working in the United States. The administration’s decision to terminate TPS, set to take effect January 5, 2020, is a continuation of its agenda to destroy rights and protections for all immigrants who call the United States home.
This unconscionable decision follows termination of TPS for individuals from El Salvador, Nicaragua, Sudan, Haiti, and Nepal. In less than two years in office, the Trump administration has stripped lawful status from millions of people who have lived, worked, and made lives for their families in the United States.
In 1998, the people of Honduras faced a series of natural disasters that devastated their country, including Hurricane Mitch, which killed more than 10,000 people. Since then, climate change has exacerbated the country’s vulnerability and drought has decimated food and water supplies. The TPS announcement came as Honduran asylum seekers wait at the U.S. border to request protection from violence and persecution at the hands of violent crime organizations that the Honduran government has been unable to control. The stories of the Honduran asylum seekers NIJC represents are testaments to the dangers to which the Trump administration wants to force TPS holders to return.
Illinois is home to 1,800 TPS recipients and their 1,900 U.S. citizen children. With the termination of TPS for El Salvador, Honduras and Haiti, Illinois will lose $95.1 million GDP annually as hardworking, taxpaying TPS recipients are thrown out of the economy. Nearly 2,000 U.S. citizen children across Illinois face not only their parents’ job loss, but also the threat of deportation and permanent separation from their mothers and fathers.
Know your rights: NIJC urges individuals who may be affected by the termination of TPS to consult with trustworthy immigration legal service providers to determine if they are eligible for alternative immigration status. In Illinois and Indiana, individuals may apply for legal consultations at NIJC.
The National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) is a nongovernmental organization dedicated to ensuring human rights protections and access to justice for all immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers through a unique combination of direct services, policy reform, impact litigation and public education. Visit immigrantjustice.org and follow @NIJC.