For Immediate Release
June 22, 2021
Media Contact
Erik Villalobos, evillalobos@ndlon.org
BREAKING: Biden Administration Officially Agrees to Enter Negotiations for TPS Lawsuit
See Joint Motion
Nationwide– Today, both legal teams representing the plaintiffs in Ramos v. Mayorkas, and the Biden Administration, have officially requested a joint motion to enter the Circuit Mediation Program. This means that the Biden administration will now officially enter negotiations in order to reach a potential settlement with plaintiffs and resolve the lawsuit which began after the Trump administration attempted to terminate the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program, threatening to strip more than 400,000 beneficiaries of their legal status.
In response to the recent news from the ninth circuit court, Crista Ramos, lead plaintiff in the Ramos lawsuit and member of the National TPS Alliance made the following remarks:
“Today, we are delighted to hear that the administration has finally agreed to begin settlement negotiations in our lawsuit, but we want to be clear that this fight is far from finished.
We need the administration to continue re-designating TPS status, and expanding the program to all migrant communities in need of immediate relief in these moments of unprecedented crisis. As we begin to discuss a potential settlement with the administration, we continue to push for re-designations for Central Americans such as for Hondurans, who continue to flee unstable conditions as a cause of recent catastrophic hurricanes and an ongoing political crisis.
This TPS community-led litigation allowed us to fight back against the Trump administration’s blatant racist attacks against our immigrant communities and it provided us with the breathing room towards achieving our main objective of permanent protections for all TPS families. We will continue to uplift the demand for congress to take immediate action on legislation which would guarantee permanent residency for my parents, and for the parents of over 275,000 US. citizen children.
As Congress continues discussions around a reconciliation package, permanent residency for Dreamers, TPS Holders, farm workers and essential workers must be included. We will not rest until our families can live peacefully without fear of separation and will fight to make sure we are included in any legislative proposal that can guarantee permanent protections.”
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The National TPS Alliance is a grassroots organization comprised of over 50 committees nationwide, advocating for the permanent residency of beneficiaries of Temporary Protected Status from the countries of El Salvador, Honduras, Haiti, Nicaragua, Nepal, Syria, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Yemen