For Immediate Release
Thursday, January 20th, 2022
Media Contact
Erik Villalobos, evillalobos@ndlon.org
TPS Alliance Statement on Biden Administration’s First Year in the White House
(Washington DC) As today marks one year since President Biden took office, Mardoel Hernandez of the National TPS Alliance issued the following statement:
“We believed that today would be a day where we would commend President Biden for demonstrating much-needed leadership in defense of immigrants from an unrelenting law, politics, and policy that continue to imperil our rights and endanger our lives. Unfortunately, after one year in office, the Biden Administration has yet to fulfill its campaign commitments to migrant families. Despite fulfilling our half of the bargain, and despite our efforts throughout this past year, migrant families were left to endure another year of mistreatment, another year of racist rights deprivation, and ultimately, another year of disappointment. President Biden and Democrats still have an opportunity to make things right, but they must take action on various fronts immediately:
- Congress and Democratic leadership must overcome its recent bungled approach to the Parliamentarian, and it must pass legislation with a guarantee of permanent residency through any available legislative vehicle, whether it requires passing legislation such as HR6, eliminating the filibuster, or through other means. We will work with any lawmaker willing to do what it takes to get the job done. Where there is a will, there is a way!
- The Biden Administration must find a settlement on the Ramos lawsuit and put an end to the racist so-called ’s**thole countries” policy initiated by Trump that sought to terminate the TPS program, to illegally de-document us, and to separate hundreds of thousands of our families. We are frankly astonished that this lawsuit has not favorably ended one year into President Biden’s term
- President Biden should use the full power of his executive authority to benefit as many immigrants as possible. He must re-designate and expand the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program for Central America and for millions of immigrants who cannot return to their native countries due to the pandemic, to natural disasters, and to political turmoil. He has the legal authority and moral imperative to act. What is missing at the moment is the political will.
Finally, we will continue to insist on speaking for ourselves. As President Biden steps into another year in office, we will continue organizing to vigorously uplift these demands in every setting, on all of our platforms, and across the country. Leadership in Washington DC is clearly failing, at every level, and this is inextricably related to a poisonous politics on all sides where we are spoken about but not allowed to speak for ourselves. This must change. We will insist on getting our voices heard. In the end, our message is simple: we demand political and legal equality. We will not rest until we get permanent residency and equal rights for all TPS families.” – Mardoel Hernandez, TPS Holder, Maryland
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The National TPS Alliance is a grassroots immigrant rights organization of over 50 committees nationwide, advocating for the permanent residency of more than 400,000 beneficiaries of Temporary Protected Status (TPS)
https://www.facebook.com/TPSAlliance
https://www.nationaltpsalliance.org/