Community Corner
Residents Hold Rally To Demand Extended TPS For Immigrants
"If I were to go back to my country, I would have to start from zero," Rosa Aviles, a 17-year TPS recipient from El Salvador said.
BRENTWOOD, NY - Local residents and elected officials held a rally in Brentwood on Monday to demand that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) extend Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for hundreds of thousands of program beneficiaries.
On Friday, the State Department issued a recommendation that DHS not renew TPS for beneficiaries from Haiti and Central America.
The DHS announced on Tuesday that protections for Nicaraguan TPS holders will end in January 2019 and Honduran TPS holders will have a six-month extension.
Find out what's happening in Brentwood-Central Islipfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
TPS gives permission to legally live and work in the U.S. to about 320,000 immigrants from 10 countries where environmental disaster, armed conflict or other extraordinary circumstances would place them in danger if they had to return.
According to Long Island Wins, a total of 57,000 people from Honduras and more than 2,500 people from Nicaragua at would be at immediate risk for deportation as a result. In addition, ending their status would put 50,000 beneficiaries from Haiti at risk and 195,000 from El Salvador.
Find out what's happening in Brentwood-Central Islipfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
TPS also covers people from Nepal, South Sudan, Syria, Yemen, and Somalia. The program was ended for Sudan in September. Decisions on the remaining countries are expected over the next eight months.
“The Department of Homeland Security’s decision to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Nicaraguans and leave thousands of Hondurans in limbo is outrageous and wrong," Irania Sanchez, Make the Road New York Board Member and immigrant from Nicaragua, said. "This is yet another direct attack to vulnerable immigrant families that need this special protected legal status because the situation in their countries is tenuous."
During the rally, Rosa Aviles, a 17-year TPS recipient from El Salvador, said her entire family is here now.
“If I were to go back to my country, I would have to start from zero because everyone from my family is here,” she said through a translator.
Watch a video from the rally below:
Photos courtesy of Walter Barrientos
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