Don’t let feds tear families apart, Congress

Nearly 3,000 of our neighbors urgently need our help, Nevada. They’re immigrants who are allowed to legally live and work in the state after being granted what’s known as Temporary Protected Status through U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The U.S. offers the special status to immigrants from 10 nations where, because of violence or other reasons, their safe return can’t be guaranteed. But with the policy set to expire starting late this year, 2,800 Nevada residents and more than 315,000 others across the nation will soon begin facing an uncertain future unless TPS is extended.

“If TPS were to expire, it would criminalize thousands of current legal workers in major cities and industries overnight,” said Geoconda Arguello-kline, secretary-treasurer for the Culinary Union, in a release last week. “We call on Republicans to renew TPS and not separate and destroy families who have deep roots in the United States.”

Indeed, those who have been granted TPS are about as far as can be from President Donald Trump’s cruel and grossly inaccurate stereotype of immigrants as criminals and parasites on the economy.

They’re people like Mauricio Valdez, a Culinary member and staffer at Hilton Grand Vacations at the Flamingo, who has been in the U.S. for 16 years after escaping violence in El Salvador.

Valdez met his wife here, started a family and bought a house. He does what the vast majority of naturalized U.S. citizens do every day — go to work and try to make a better life for himself, his family and those in his community. TPS recipients undergo background checks to ensure they’re not a threat to public safety or national security.

“America is my home, and I wouldn’t be able to stay in this country with my family if I didn’t have TPS,” he said in the Culinary release. “I ask politicians to renew the TPS program and don’t destroy my family.”

With Democrats generally supporting TPS extension, Nevadans can help by contacting Republican lawmakers and urging them to follow suit.

Contact information is as follows:

Sen. Dean Heller, R-nev. 324 Hart Senate Office Building

Washington, DC 20510 Phone: 202-224-6244 Online email form: https://w w w.heller.senate. gov/public/index.cfm/contact-form

Rep. Mark Amodei, R-nev.

332 Cannon House Office Building

Washington, DC 20515 Phone: 202-225-6155 Online email form: https://amodei.house.gov/ email-me/