Biden must use Temporary Protected Status to defend people on Nicaragua

My mother is on Twitter again, and I know from the look on her face that she is reading threads exposing the atrocities that the Ortega regime is committing against its people in Nicaragua.

I see the nostalgia in her eyes, I notice the way that her shoulders almost reach her ears as tension, anxiety and rage make them rise.

For over 20 years, Mama has called Miami home, but she was born in Nicaragua, the country of her childhood and early 20s. Now, it is a country she no longer recognizes. Distance and time are not the only factors that have rendered Nicaragua unrecognizable. Dictatorship and violence blur her memories as well. I know deep in my heart that Nicaragua still calls my mother, and it is a calling that neither she nor I can ignore.

We need to protect Nicaraguans by redesignating and extending Temporary Protected Status. This form of humanitarian aid would provide relief for around 35,000 Nicaraguans in the United States, and while this may look like a small number, it will provide the security that so many need. We need to make sure that Nicaraguans are not deported back to a country where they will face unheard of abuse.

In 2018, Nicaragua exploded. Thousands protested against social security reforms that would negatively impact Nicaragua’s elderly. Young people joined their elders in the streets; what followed was a bloodbath. In September 2018, Ortega declared that protests were illegal, but this was not the only form of repression. Since April 2018, hundreds have been murdered by the Ortega regime.

Political prisoners, unjustly held, languish in dirty cells. For women held by the police and paramilitary forces, rape was a form of torture. These women survive by ignoring the scream lodged in their throats. University students remain quiet; many know that one wrong comment invites paramilitaries to track their every movement. Journalists who investigated the regime found themselves fleeing the country, making social media one of the few ways that people share information on attacks. Independent media stations were taken down. Religious institutions found themselves under attack. On Friday, Aug. 19, police raided the home of Roman Catholic Bishop Rolando Álvarez and took him away. No one knows where. The Ortega regime has gaslit an entire country by furiously silencing any opposition and instilling fear in the people that a crooked criminal system will be used against them.

Ortega’s electoral win in 2021 was a sham made possible by a dictator who erased any form of democracy and accountability over a span of 15 years. According to the Nicaraguan government, Daniel Ortega and his wife and vice president, Rosario Murillo, won with nearly 70% of the popular vote, but according to Urnas Abiertas, a civil electoral observatory group, abstention rates averaged more than 80% across the country. Nations in the west, including the United States, have condemned those elections.

Nicaragua is paying the price for being the second-poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. The cries of hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans are ignored because the country is considered too small and too poor to care about. Human rights abuses are ignored as people can afford to simply look away or, maybe like Sen. Marco Rubio, use Nicaragua’s tragedy as a throw-away line on Twitter.

I am the daughter of Nicaraguan immigrants, and I refuse to believe that our story, our experiences, our pain can only matter as a political prop. Those who were born in Nicaragua and those of us who are children of the diaspora know that when a volcano erupts, there is no holding it back. But there are many who need to run and find safety in other countries. I urge people to learn more about Nicaragua, and I urge our country to protect Nicaraguans.

In 2020, a letter urging the Trump administration to stop Nicaraguan deportations was signed by seven elected officials, including congresswomen Donna Shalala and Debbie Murcasell-Powell, who were both unseated in the elections that followed. Congressman Charlie Crist just released a bipartisan congressional sign-on letter asking the Biden administration to redesignate Nicaragua’s Temporary Protected Status (TPS), and state Sen. Annette Taddeo did the same for Florida state lawmakers, underscoring the support for granting relief and refuge to besieged Nicaraguans that suffer from political repression at home while enduring anxiety due to fear of deportation in the United States.

In November 2021, President Joe Biden released a proclamation that suspended the entry of people responsible for policies and actions that threatened democracy in Nicaragua. That same month, Reuters reported that the U.S. was deporting Nicaraguans at unprecedented levels. The next powerful step that Biden can make is to redesignate TPS for Nicaragua and protect new individuals who have fled.

For now, I just watch Mama’s face as she scrolls down social media — powerless — not knowing that her daughter is writing this article. Mamá, juntos somos un volcán.

By Yareliz Zamora