TPS Holders and Lawyers Call for Redesignation and Permanent Status
LOS ANGELES – Today, the Biden Administration announced an 18-month extension of TPS for people from the six countries within the Ramos litigation—El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Nepal, and Sudan—through June 2024.
More than 300,000 people from these countries have been at risk of losing their legal status since the Trump administration sought to end their TPS in 2017 and 2018.
"Tonight, hundreds of thousands of families who have lived in limbo for so long can rest a little easier," says Cristina Morales, a TPS holder from El Salvador and plaintiff in the lawsuit. "The Biden administration acted to extend TPS now because of the strength of our community’s voice demanding greater protection."
The plaintiffs in Ramos are represented by the ACLU Foundations of Northern and Southern California, the UCLA Center for Immigration Law and Policy, Unemployed Workers United, and the Sidley Law Firm.
"This is an important victory, but an interim one," says Ahilan Arulanantham, co-director of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at UCLA School of Law. "Since TPS holders won an injunction in court four years ago, they have benefited from nine-month auto-extensions of their status while the case has been pending. Despite today's extension, the Biden administration is still defending Trump's racist TPS termination decisions in court, which unless the Biden administration acts, will remain on the books."
"Today, TPS holders still do not have permanent residence, along with all the civil rights and political equality they deserve," says Emi Maclean, senior staff attorney at the ACLU Foundation of Northern California. "Most members of this community have lived in this country for decades. They deserve lawful permanent residence, not life lived in 18-month increments. TPS holders, the TPS Alliance, and their allies will not cease until that demand has been met."
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