TPS Saves People Who Face Catastrophe if They're Forced to Go Home.
IT WAS STANDING ROOM ONLY at a congressional briefing on the renewal of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Yemen and Somalia on June 28 at the Longworth House Office Building. Congressional staff, summer interns and press wanted to hear experts and TPS holders explain the dire situations in both countries. TPS is a life-saving humanitarian immigration program that gives temporary status to eligible nationals of designated countries. Jill Marie Bussey, from Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC) explained that TPS status allows persons already living and working in the United States to remain for limited times when something catastrophic happens in their home countries. It is given to nationals from some countries affected by armed conflict, epidemics or natural disaster.
TPS status for approximately 1,250 Yemenis was set to expire on Sept. 3, 2018 and for 499 Somalians on Sept. 17, 2018. The attorney general no longer makes the decision to renew or cancel TPS. Now it is up to Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen M. Nielsen, and she had already decided that TPS expires for Liberians living in the U.S. on Sept. 30 and for Sudanese on Nov. 2, 2018.
Patrice Lawrence, from the UndocuBlack Network, said that approximately 437,000 people from 10 countries--Haiti, El Salvador, Syria, Nepal, Honduras, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Nicaragua and South Sudan--have TPS.
The Trump administration terminated TPS for Salvadorans, Liberians, and people from Guinea and Sierra Leone. She chided congressional staffers not in attendance, "This isn't a Democratic or Republican issue. It can't be siloed. It needs to be a bipartisan issue."
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, African Communities Together, UndocuBlack Network, Black Alliance for Just Immigration, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Yemen Peace Project and other organizations worked tirelessly together, writing petitions and providing information to members of Congress.
On July 5, 2018--a week after the packed congressional briefing, Nielsen renewed TPS for Yemenis through March 3, 2020. As we went to press, Somali nationals were waiting to hear their fate. TPS for Syrians will continue until Sept. 30, 2019, also thanks to grassroots efforts.
Established by Congress, the TPS provision in the Immigration Act of 1990 states that after each 6-, 12- or 18-month review, if conditions have changed, governments can adequately handle the return of their citizens, and the returnees can return in safety, then TPS can be terminated.
Michael Page, from Human Rights Watch, said if anything, conditions in Yemen have gotten worse since Yemeni nationals were given TPS in September 2015. Yemen's war has caused the world's worst humanitarian crisis with more than 22 million Yemenis--three-quarters of the population--needing humanitarian assistance. At least 8.4 million are on the brink of starvation, 50 percent of hospitals are not functioning and there have been more than a million suspected cases of cholera.
Nationals face arbitrary detention, torture and indiscriminate shelling, Page said. A recent Associated Press report found sexual abuse of Yemeni detainees in secret Emirati-run prisons in southern Yemen. "The U.S. is intimately involved in Yemen," Page concluded. We supply weapons, provide aerial refueling and intelligence. The least we can do is protect Yemenis working in the U.S.
Abdullahi Halakhe, from the International Rescue Committee, described the devastating humanitarian and environmental conditions in Somalia. He said Somali nationals returning from overseas are especially targeted in displaced persons camps by al-Shabaab.
Amaha Kassa, founder and executive director of African Communities Together, told staffers that TPS holders are breadwinners for their families in the U.S., and provide life-sustaining remittances to support families they left behind. They contribute to the American workforce, he pointed out, contributing but not drawing from Social Security and Medicare. TPS terminations can leave parents of American -born children with the impossible decision: bring them to unfamiliar countries where they could be in harm's way or leave them behind.
Rep. Yvette D. Clarke (D-NY 9th District), who co-wrote dear colleague letters on behalf of Somali and Yemeni TPS holders, many of whom live in central Brooklyn, said, "I cannot sit back without doing everything I can to keep our communities whole." She berated the Trump administration for waging a war on immigrants, particularly those of color, and ending family preferences in immigration. She reproached the Supreme Court for rubber stamping the Muslim ban.
"These TPS holders have been integrated into American life, the American dream," she said. "Sending them back to an uncertain fate, persecution or even death is to demolish our ideals," Clarke said.
Mohamed, 29, a Somali TPS holder from Ohio, recalled being kidnapped in 2009, held in a dark room and brain washed before fleeing to the safety of America, "the beautiful land of opportunity." His voice shook as he said, "To the American people--I love you all. Living here I don't have to look over my shoulder to see who is trying to kill me." Before coming here, Mohamed endured numerous background checks, and spent thousands of dollars in legal fees. "I was reborn the moment I stepped into the United States. If I am sent back I face violence, persecution, sexual violence, forced recruitment or conscription."
He had to leave the room.
Jaylani Hussein, from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Minnesota, warned that sending TPA holders back to countries President Trump's Muslim ban has labeled unsafe will send a mixed message. He, too, grew up in Somalia.
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