News > Immigration In The United States
Time Is Running Out: DED, DREAMers, and TPS
Posted on Mar 07 2019
March 8 2019—Nearly a million people live in the United States with the constant uncertainty of TPS, DED, and DACA status. While each is different in some details, all of these statuses provide temporary permission to live in the United States, with no path to permanent residence (green card) or citizenship. The Trump administration is trying to end all of these statuses. Some of its efforts have been delayed or stymied, in part, by lawsuits and court orders.
Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) status for Liberians ends on March 27, by order of the Trump administration. When DED ends, they will lose their work permission, Minnesota driver’s licenses, and their permission to stay in the United States. They will be vulnerable to deportation—away from the lives, homes, and families they have built over the past two decades.
Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, Sudan, Nepal, and Honduras also face an end to their status. A federal judge enjoined DHS from terminating TPS status for residents of Sudan, Nicaragua, Haiti, and El Salvador. That gives more than 300,000 people a temporary reprieve for as long as the injunction lasts. TPS for Hondurans will end on January 5, 2020, and TPS for Nepal will end on June 14, 2019. Some residents of South Sudan, Syria, Somalia, and Yemen also have TPS, with varying dates for expiration or extension.
While the administration is unsympathetic to the plight of TPS holders already in the United States, it is considering extension of TPS to Venezuelans.
DACA holders and DREAMers saw the administration try to end their status back in 2017. The courts ordered that people who already had Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) on or prior to September 5, 2017 could keep and extend their status, at least while litigation continues. No new DACA applications are allowed, which means that hundreds of thousands of DREAMers (immigrants who entered the United States without authorization as children) who had not yet been granted DACA status have no way forward.
According to the Miami Herald, members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus have introduced legislation to provide a pathway to citizenship for DREAMers, and people with TPS and DED. Whatever the eventual fate of that legislation, it’s not going to pass in time to help Liberians with DED. They are in an even more precarious position, as DED status depends entirely on Trump: DED is a discretionary protection status enacted by the president.
DED holder Yatta Kiazolu, a PhD candidate at UCLA who has lived for 22 of her 28 years in the United States, testified at the House Judiciary Committee hearing on March 6. Her full testimony is available here. She said in part:
“25 days from now Liberian DED will end and my entire life will be interrupted. I have only visited Liberia once as a toddler and I have never lived in the country.
“I am here today to appeal to Congress to create a permanent solution on behalf of myself and the thousands of Liberians who have rebuilt their lives here in the United States. …
“I have been a recipient of both TPS and DED. If DACA had not been rescinded it is possible that I would have been a Dreamer, as well. The protection of these relief programs allowed me to maintain a stable and healthy life, despite living deadline to deadline. …
“Nothing I have accomplished thus far would be possible without the unwavering support of my family, who are here with me today. I am here because of the love and labor of my mother, grandmother, and aunties who, when I first arrived, were all working class Black immigrant women. They worked jobs that required them to stand on their feet for sometimes over 10 hours a day in order to protect me and offer me space to imagine, dream, and explore my world as a child should. Their resilience, hope, and lessons about goodwill inspire my graduate research about histories of Black women’s political activism . My grandmother used to say “When you do good, you don’t do it for yourself, you do it for God.”[pause] And with that philosophy as my personal mantra, though the majority of my family are now permanent residents and U.S. citizens, I am here for all the working class immigrants on DED, TPS, and are also DREAM-eligible. I am here for all young people like myself who have anxiety about their futures.
“If Congress allows DED to end in 25 days, I do not know what will happen to me.”
Yatta Kiazolu speaks not only for herself, but for nearly a million other immigrants whose lives depend on continuation of TPS, DED, and DACA—and ultimately, on what only Congress can do: creation of a path to citizenship for them.
You can call Congress and ask for a path to citizenship for Yatta and for all immigrants with TPS and DED and for all DREAMers.