News > Press Releases
Immigrants Need Permanent Protection
Posted on Jun 07 2021
June 7, 2021—Today’s Supreme Court decision denying green card access to people with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) highlights the need for Congress to provide permanent protection for immigrants.
The unanimous decision said that people with TPS are not eligible to apply for green cards (permanent legal residence) if they entered the United States without authorization. The Supreme Court’s decision is based on the language of the statute, which Congress can and must change.
“Congress must act to protect individuals with temporary protected status and the millions of Dreamers and immigrant workers who lack a pathway to permanent legal status and citizenship,” said Veena Iyer, executive director of the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota (ILCM). “Changing the law underlying the Supreme Court’s decision today is one way for Congress to support a subset of TPS holders, but broader immigration reform is needed so long-term residents are able to obtain a green card and citizenship regardless of how they initially entered. All of us need these parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters, nurses, doctors, farm workers, artists—these absolutely essential members of our communities.”
The Department of Homeland Security designates Temporary Protected Status for some people who cannot return to their home countries due to ongoing armed conflict (such as civil war); an environmental disaster (such as earthquake or hurricane), or an epidemic; other extraordinary and temporary conditions. Sometimes those conditions persist for decades.
More than 2,000 TPS holders live in Minnesota. They have built lives here, with U.S. citizen spouses and children, employers, churches, and communities. A pathway to citizenship will recognize this reality and protect TPS holders whose real home is now here.