MIAMI (WSVN) - Local Temporary Protected Status recipients reacted with cautious optimism to a judge’s ruling that blocks the Trump administration from ending their protected status in the United States.
TPS holders, Haitian activists, Miami advocates and elected officials gathered Thursday morning at the offices of the Family Action Network Movement to discuss the federal judge’s ruling, while also breathing a temporary sigh of relief.
“Yes, we can,” chanted the crowd as local officials addressed reporters.
Marleine Bastien, executive director of FANM, said the ruling gives local TPS holders a temporary reprieve.
“This is quite welcoming news for 300,000 TPS recipients and 275,000 of their U.S.-born children,” she said.
The judge ruled that despite the Trump administration’s desire to end the program, it is here to stay for now. The ruling applies to people from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua and Sudan.
The judge cited the president’s own comments for part of the reasoning, including a 2015 speech calling immigrants from Mexico drug dealers and rapists, and the president’s hope to ban people from a majority-Muslim countries from entering the United States.
Tens of thousands of residents in South Florida are currently TPS, including a number of Haitian nationals who left the country after the 2010 earthquake.
The White House argues Haiti and the other nations included in the ruling have had time to rebuild and can welcome back TPS, but many Democrats and some Republicans are fearful families will be separated.
“They have to make a hard decision. ‘Do I leave my children here, in the only country they have ever known, or do I snatch them away from their friends, their schools, the wonderful opportunities they have here?'” said U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla.
While FANM sees this move as good news, they recognize that it is only a temporary solution.
Local TPS recipients said they plan to take advantage of the time Wednesday’s ruling provides them. They plan to push out the vote during the midterm elections, so that more Democrats are elected to Congress.
“We have time now to work very hard with the Congress so we can have a permanent solution,” said TPS recipient Rony Ponthieux.
They believe the White House will appeal this decision soon, and if the White House is successful, then 300,000 families could end up being separated if they lose their TPS protection.
The very first TPS recipients who would be forced to leave the country would be from Sudan, as early as November.
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