Jackson Lee authors bill to extend TPS for 6 nations
U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee announced on Friday that she will introduce a bill to extend the Temporary Protected Status for immigrants from the six countries that Trump administration has terminated.
The Houston congresswoman said at a “Immigration Unity Event” that the bill, called Keep America’s Values Act, would provide an extension until Feb. 21, 2021, to immigrants from Sudan, Nicaragua, Haiti, El Salvador, Nepal and Honduras currently enrolled in the TPS program..
More than 310,000 immigrants from those countries would be affected by the suspension of the TPS protections. Nationally and in Houston, the countries with more immigrants holding a temporary status are from El Salvador and Honduras.
In the Houston Metropolitan Area including The Woodlands and Sugar Land, there are 16,990 Salvadorans and 6,060 Hondurans with TPS, according to a report from the the Immigrant Legal Resource Center based on data from the Census’ American Community Survey. The center is an immigrant advocacy group with offices in San Francisco, California, and Washington, DC.
The bill, if passed, would provide time for those immigrants to pursue other legal status or a path to citizenship to stay in the country .
Jackson Lee also issued an update on congressional efforts to find a solution for DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the program suspended by the administration that protected immigrants who were brought to the country illegally when they were minors.
“I am pleased to announce that support for the USA Act, which I have co-sponsored, is growing,” the congresswoman said. The act, she added “will provide conditional permanent status for the over 800,000 Dreamers ho had their status arbitrarily revoked by this president.”
She said President Donald Trump’s s revocation was reckless and called for supporting the affected young immigrants and the families that could be separated by those decisions.
Both DACA and TPS beneficiaries will lose their work permits and be exposed to deportation when their status expires.
“On this Mother’s Day weekend,” she said, “it is essential that we too stand with our immigrant mothers and children.”