Magazine, The Immigrant Experience, African Coalition
The African Communities Public Health Coalition joined the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) rally on January 13, 208. The TPS Coalition in Los Angeles that was organized and led by CARECEN march to Metropolitan Detention Center to protect a program that is critical to California’s growing South American and African immigrant communities from elimination.
This program provides humanitarian immigration relief, legal status, and work authorization.
TPS is frequently extended in recognition that countries continue to experience disruptions to their economies, public health systems, and societies that continue beyond short-term humanitarian crises. The West African nations of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone also have received Temporary Protected Status designation in 2014 after they were ravaged by the Ebola epidemic. Despite that, and despite the fact that these nations have barely begun to rebuild from the devastating epidemic, DHS has terminated their status on May 2017. In the past six months, the Trump administration has terminated the El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Syria, Sudan, and Haiti TPS and no received extensions. The TPS Coalition in LA believes that TPS beneficiaries have a right to remain in the communities where they have settled. After years of hopes from Washington, a lasting legislative reform should give them path to permanent residency, not deportation.
In 2016, the African Coalition with the African Communities Together (A New York based partner organization) leadership has advocated and reached out the congress members and the White House for the renewal of the TPS program for Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Although, the previous six-month extension of TPS raises concerns of policy effectiveness and fairness, we were able to help the TPS recipients to receive extension from November 2016 until May 2017. Currently, over 4,000 immigrants from these three countries have lost their legal status and working papers since May 2017.
