'Protected' immigrants on the DHS chopping block
Rally to keep temporary protected status for migrants
The Trump administrations push to end temporary protected status for hundreds of thousands of migrants living in the U.S. saw a hearing in federal court in San Francisco on Monday. KTVUs Tom Vacar has more on the legal challenge.
SAN FRANCISCO - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is moving to revoke special status legal protections for more than a million Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans. But, another half million more specially protected immigrants are on the chopping block as well.
A showdown in a San Francisco federal court shows just how intent the Trump administration means to rid the nation of immigrants, even protected ones.
Temporary Protected Status recipients are students, taxpayers, small business owners and contributors to the broader U.S. economy.
In front of the federal court building, one Venezuelan woman and other protected immigrants rallied to oppose DHS's attempt to end their protected status next month, an attempt they are opposing in court.
The more than a million people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela have come to the U.S. since October 2022, admitted through long-standing humanitarian programs allowing people in from politically unstable, at war, or countries affected by gang violence.
They may all soon lose their protected status, says UC Davis immigration law Professor Kevin Johnson. "The president has the power to limit discretionary immigration," he said.
Many of these people have financial sponsors and two-year work-live permits with all of their names and addresses on file.
"Hundreds of thousands of people would be out of the workforce and it would be illegal for an employer to hire them. These, by definition, are people who are not criminals. If you have more than one misdemeanor or if you have any felony, you're not eligible," said immigration lawyer Josh Surowitz.
Many will try to apply for asylum. "That would have an impact on our detention system as well as our immigration court system," said Professor Johnson. "The immigration courts are backlogged. Years in many cases. These judges are double booked," said Surowitz.
It could get very ugly with something called expedited deportation. "Quick removal without hearing, without immigration court, and without federal judges ever having the opportunity to look at the cases and see if they have merit or not," said Johnson.
The Administration may well have to pay to detain deportees offshore, as is already done in El Salvador since several countries refuse to take their people back. To avoid that, many potential deportees, will go underground, no longer paying taxes. "There will be legal challenges, I'm sure and we'll see how those all hash out," said Johnson.
Dreamers are another potential protected target: a half-million plus who were brought here as children without documentation, also have a protected status who now have a quarter million of their own children.
For more on TPS, you can look here on the government's website.
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