Catholic groups denounce the end of immigration protection for Salvadorans

WASHINGTON (CNS) – As the Catholic Church in the United States began observing National Migration Week, a time to reflect on the circumstances facing migrants, immigrants, refugees and victims of human trafficking Humans, President Donald Trump’s administration has announced it will end an immigration program for thousands of Salvadorans, one of the country’s largest modern immigrant groups and which includes many Catholics.

More than 200,000 Salvadorans, living under special immigration status in the United States, now face the prospect of remaining in the country illegally or returning to a nation designated as one of the most dangerous in the world not at war , after the US Department of the Fatherland. Security announced on January 8 that it was ending a provision called Temporary Protected Status after September 9, 2019.

“The decision to end TPS for El Salvador was taken after a review of the disaster-related conditions on which the country’s original designation was based,” DHS said in a statement. Affected Salvadorans may apply to stay under a different program, if they qualify, or plan to return to their home country, the statement continued.

Citizens of El Salvador were able to apply for TPS in 2001 after the Central American nation experienced a series of major earthquakes. TPS grants a work permit and deportation stay to certain people whose countries have experienced natural disasters, armed conflicts or exceptional situations, to stay temporarily in the United States. El Salvador had already received the designation in 1990 after thousands of Salvadorans fled to the United States to seek refuge from a brutal civil war.

Supporters of Salvadorans have said current TPS recipients should be allowed to stay because they have started families and are firmly rooted in the United States and local religious communities.

Bishops and Catholic organizations have expressed concern that Salvadorans will be forced to return to a socially unstable country ravaged by gangs and designated by various organizations as one of the most dangerous places in the world and not equipped for absorb such a large-scale repatriation.

“Based on our experience working with the Catholic Church and other local partners in El Salvador, the Salvadoran government does not have the adequate humanitarian capacity to receive, protect or safely reintegrate into society so many people,” Catholic Relief Services said in a released statement. shortly after the decision was announced.

Dylan Corbett, executive director of the Texas-based Hope Border Institute, said the administration’s decision would instead create an additional 200,000 “undocumented immigrants soon” in the United States.

“Today, the Trump administration is needlessly and cruelly endangering the safety, security, families and lives of more than 200,000 Salvadoran TPS beneficiaries, including more than 35,000 in Texas. Evicting them will mean uprooting and destroying families and livelihoods and sending families back into poverty and violence in one of the most dangerous and volatile parts of the world, ”Corbett said. “And make no mistake, as Americans, through our trade and security policies, and because of our insatiable appetite for drugs, we are morally involved in the crisis in El Salvador and Central America.”

Recalling the words of Pope Francis, Corbett said that the building of walls, the detention of human beings, and “the expulsion of our Salvadoran sisters and brothers is just another example of how the Trump administration is stoking problems. “primary fears” for political advantage “.

The 192,000 children born in the United States to Salvadoran families are of great concern to Catholic organizations and leaders.

“This is yet another ill-conceived decision by an administration which ignores the immense contributions to our country by immigrants and which has lost sight of the long history of the United States as a safe haven for those fleeing danger at home. ‘foreigner,’ said Bishop Kevin W. Vann of Orange, Calif., chairman of the board of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc., based in Maryland.

“By ending the TPS for El Salvador, hundreds of thousands of people, including child American citizens and extended family members, will be faced with heart-wrenching decisions about how to lead their lives,” said the Bishop Vann. “The administration fails to explain how it makes the United States safer to deport people who have lived and worked legally as valued residents of our country. Instead of removing their protections, our government should welcome these long established members of our communities and find ways to give them a permanent path to residence. “

In a statement, Bishop Joe S. Vasquez of Austin, Texas, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops; Migration Commission, said the administration’s decision was “heartbreaking”.

“We believe God has called us to care for the outsider and the marginalized… Our nation must not turn its back on TPS recipients and their families; they too are children of God, ”he said in a statement.

While urging Congress to find a solution, Bishop Vasquez said the USCCB stands in solidarity with Salvadoran TPS beneficiaries and that the bishops will continue to pray for them, their families, “and all those who are displaced or forced to leave. flee their homes “.

According to the Center for Migration Studies in New York, 88% of Salvadoran TPS recipients are employed, many are homeowners and have generally lived in the United States for 21 years. Sending them back to El Salvador would be “destabilizing,” Donald Kerwin, executive director of the center, said in a statement.

“Today’s decision creates many losers and no winners,” he said. “The losers are the beneficiaries of the TPS themselves, their employers, their American citizen children, their American communities, El Salvador and the American economy. The rule of law is another loser, as the decision will relegate hard-working legal immigrants to people without status and force TPS recipients and their American children to return to abused communities without good economic prospects.

Ricardo Calderon, of the Central American Resource Center in San Francisco, told Catholic News Service that affected Salvadorans have suffered what amounts to “psychological torture” while awaiting the administration’s decision.

Many have felt anger, worry, uncertainty, wondering what will happen to their children and the overseas family members who depend on them. Some are scrambling to understand the decision because there is so much misinformation, he said.

While the conditions that led to the TPS designation have improved in El Salvador, it makes no sense to ignore the conditions that continue to plague the country and that seem intimidating to those who are faced with it: the lack of jobs, rampant crime and a long list of social ills, Calderon added.

The Ohio-based Ignatian Solidarity Network said return, for many Salvadorans, means returning to danger.

“We learned about the reality of Salvadoran TPS holders through the stories of individuals in our Ignatian network,” the organization said in a statement. “These women and men of all ages – whom we know as students, teachers, colleagues, parishioners – face an uncertain future and grave risks to themselves and their families as they contemplate a return to life. violence and impunity in El Salvador. “