For Immediate Release:
Contact: Xochitl Sanchez 323-477-5237 [email protected]; Martin Pineda 562-916-5650 [email protected]
January 8, 2018
CARECEN-LA: TPS Holders, Their Families, and Allies Denounce Administration Decision to End TPS for Salvadorans
The Community is Further Motivated to Work With Congress to Fight for Permanent Residency Through Legislation
Los Angeles, CA– Today, the Trump administration terminated the 17-year-old Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program for El Salvador. This decision impacts approximately 260,000 Salvadoran TPS holders, there are an estimated 200,000 U.S. citizen children, and vibrant communities throughout the U.S., California, and Los Angeles.
The Central American Resource Center-Los Angeles (CARECEN-LA) condemns this decision, which again proves that utilizing Central American and other migrants as scapegoats and advancing xenophobia are fundamental characteristics of this administration.
Los Angeles is home to more Salvadoran TPS Holders than any other area, with over 30,000 contributing to the social, cultural, and economic fabric of our city. TPS holders make up around 20% of the entire Salvadoran population in the U.S. They are an integral part of our LA community and countless other communities in large cities and small towns throughout the country. TPS holders, their family members, and allies will not sit back and allow this administration to upend the lives of hundreds of thousands of individuals who are now being forcefully removed from this country after establishing families, careers, buying homes, and cementing deep roots in the U.S.
“We are devastated by this decision but we will continue to fight for what TPS holders deserve said Martha Arevalo, CARECEN Executive Director. “We will now make it even clearer to Members of Congress, Republicans, and Democrats alike, that this government needs to take responsibility for its failed immigration and foreign policies towards El Salvador that for many years have caused violence and instability there. We urge Congress to pass legislation with a pathway to Legal Permanent Residency for TPS holders.”
TPS holders & family members organizing with CARECEN-LA and the National TPS Alliance issued the following statements:
Veronica Lagunas, TPS Holder from the San Fernando Valley in California
“It’s a bad decision, but we expected it. The decision affects the mental and physical health of my children. However, even if it is devastating for my family, this situation also gives me the strength to fight. We will not sit silently and await deportation. We will continue to find allies in the public. We will continue to find politicians that support Permanent Residency for TPS holders. We have no choice, and we are ready.”
Benjamin Zepeda, teenage US Citizen, and son of TPS holders
“We still have more than a year to keep on fighting, and I believe we still have a chance. I have already been fighting to Save TPS alongside with my parents, other TPS holders, and their families. I’m more ready than ever to be involved in the campaign to get Permanent Residency for my parents and all other TPS holders.”
Evelyn Hernandez, TPS Holder and CARECEN Organizer
"I denounce this decision of the Trump Administration. I am not only affected as a TPS holder but so are my children and the rest of my family both here and in El Salvador. We are feeling a lot of different emotions. Even if we still have 20 months left to fight, it is a bitter pill to swallow right now. Know we will fight for this."
Showing 2 reactions
Sign in with
Facebook Twitterplease sign and share this petition so we can get more signatures.