Immigration Fight Heats Up over TPS and Dreamers

FEATURING CHRISTINE NEUMANN-ORTIZ – Hundreds of thousands of Salvadorans are facing imminent deportation after Donald Trump’s administration announced it would end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for that community. Many among them have been in the US for more than ten years and have formed deep family and community ties.

Nationals of El Salvador were the largest group that benefitted from the TPS program and are the latest group to face expulsion under Trump. The virulently anti-immigrant administration has already ended TPS for Haitians and Nicaraguans. Hondurans may be the next group to be ripped out of the nation.

Meanwhile, registrants of the canceled program Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) are promising to hold legislators accountable for passing a so-called DREAM Act. “DACA-mented” youth or “Dreamers” have confronted members of both major parties to win protections for them and their families as part of a legislative negotiation over the spending bill in Congress. On Tuesday Trump appeared to support a path to citizenship for all undocumented immigrants during a televised meeting with Democrats.

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Christine Neumann-Ortiz, Executive Director of Voces De La Frontera.