SIREN Condemns the Termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Nepal

Media Contact: Erik Schnabel, Communications Manager

erik@siren-bayarea.org

Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it would be terminating Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for people from Nepal who had been granted this status after the devastating earthquake that hit that country in 2015. The termination will take effect June 24, 2019. This announcement follows a trend by the Trump Administration to end TPS for the nationals of almost every country this has been applied to, including people from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, Liberia, and Sudan. What is clear to those of us who support people from these countries is that the decision to end TPS for Nepal, just as the decision to end TPS for other countries, was not based on facts or changes in the country conditions that originally created the need for this protection. Rather this is one more step in the Trump Administration’s war on immigrants, that is disproportionately being waged on people of color and immigrants from the Global South. 

SIREN condemns in the strongest terms the termination of TPS for people from Nepal, just as it has condemned the ending of TPS for people from every country that has been ended. SIREN’s Executive Director Maricela Gutiérrez made the following statement, “We are once again calling out the Trump Administration for its callous ending of TPS for people from another country, this time for the Nepali community. Each one of these decisions is devastating for people who have lived in our communities, been our neighbors and co-workers, and who want nothing more than to stay in their adopted homelands. It’s clear that the Trump Administration does not govern on the basis of facts or compassion. But if there was any doubt, today shows this once more. We call on DHS and the Trump Administration to reconsider its decision to end TPS for Nepal, just as we condemn the end of TPS for all people who have seen the possibility of continuing to live in their adopted country legally ended overnight. We also urge Congress to act immediately with compassion to pass a permanent solution to the people that are finding the end to their ability to stay in the U.S. legally when their TPS status is ended.”



Maricela Gutiérrez - Services, Immigrant Rights, and Education Network
 

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Hundreds of Youth Walkout and March to San Jose City Hall and Federal Building in Support of Clean DREAM Act and TPS and to Denounce Cruel ICE Enforcements

SIREN Press Release 3/6/18
Media Contact: Erik Schnabel
Communications Manager
erik@siren-bayarea.org

Hundreds of Youth Walkout and March to San Jose City Hall and Federal Building in Support of Clean DREAM Act and TPS and to Denounce Cruel ICE Enforcements

Yesterday, hundreds of high school and college students walked out of classrooms across San Jose to urge congressional action on a Clean DREAM Act and Temporary Protective Status, and also denounce recent abusive ICE actions in Northern and Central California that resulted in the 232 people being detained. The local action, led by Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network (SIREN), was part of a National Day of Action for a Clean DREAM Act, that saw actions all across the U.S. and a civil disobedience campaign in Washington D.C. urging Congress to act. As students converged on the plaza in front of San Jose City Hall, speakers took the stage to share why they felt the need for action that resulted in student walkouts. Several of the speakers who have received DACA addressed the personal impact of the Trump Administration ending the DACA program, and Congress failing to act to find a permanent solution for the affected young people. As student speaker Amairani Oronia said, “DACA has given me the opportunity to work and go to college. I have protection from immigration because of DACA but for how long?” Although speakers discussed how important DACA is to them, they were also clear that they weren’t willing to compromise their family members in order to get see DACA passed. Several of the speakers referred to various legislative solutions that have been discussed which proposed passage of DACA at the expense of criminalizing their parents for bringing them here or that pushed for the end of certain family categories in the family reunification immigrant program. Many of the speakers also denounced the recent ICE actions across Northern and Central California that occurred last week, which saw the arrest of 232 people. As has been well documented, ICE actions were extremely troubling and caused widespread panic among immigrant communities; with report of racial profiling, ICE vans driving around public parking lots, denial of detainees access to counsel, and various abusive practices. As SIREN Youth Leader, Nithya Badrinath stated in her speech, “ICE has deported, is deporting and wants to deport even more people who came to this country to chase the American Dream, the ideal that this country was founded on, to escape violence and hardship in their native countries, and to live a normal life where they can feel safe and protected”. After gathering at San Jose City Hall to hear the speakers, the youth then marched to the Robert F. Peckham Federal Building to continue the rally, before returning to San Jose City Hall to finish the action.

 

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