Immigrant rights organizations demand Biden use the full extent of the executive branch to fulfill his promise to protect families

Since President Biden took office, advocates have urged the Biden Administration to redesignate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for countries like Nicaragua, Honduras, Haiti, and Ecuador. However, President Biden has refused to use his executive powers to redesignate TPS and left hundreds of thousands vulnerable to deportation.

In the final days of the Biden Administration, immigrant rights groups including the Association of Salvadorans of Los Angeles, American Friends Service Committee of Florida, Alianza Americas, CARECEN Los Angeles, CARECEN San Francisco, CARECEN Washington DC, Centro Romero, Centro Presente,CRECEN Houston, COPAL Minnesota, Comunidades Sin Fronteras, Casa Yurumein, Centro Comunitario CEUS, Diáspora Hondureña Internacional, ECCO Community Center , Haitian Bridge Alliance , Hijos de Livingston, Hondureños Contra el SIDA, Family Action Network Movement , Familias Unidas en Acción, Florida Immigrant Coalition , Florida Student POwer Network, National TPS Alliance , Nicaraguan American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc, LILA LGBTQ Inc., Central American Black Organization (Organización Negra Centroemericana ONECA), Youth Ministry Explosion For Christ, Seeds of Resistance , UUSC are angry at the President's refusal to use the full power of the Executive Branch to protect hundreds of thousands of immigrants by redesignating TPS for countries like Nicaragua, Honduras, Haiti, and Ecuador. President Biden's inaction leaves more than 700,000 Nicaraguan, Hondurans, Haitians, and Ecuadorians without an immigration status. Once more, President Biden broke his promise to do everything he could to keep families together.

When President Biden won the 2020 elections, he promised a more humane immigration system and the rolling back of President Trump's brutal policies. While President Biden issued executive orders aimed at helping mixed-status families and created the Haitian, Cuban, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan (CHNV) humanitarian parole programs, he still has not used the full force of the Executive to protect immigrant families.

On the eve of an incoming administration that has announced a cruel immigration agenda, including the immediate termination of the CHNV parole program, the hundreds of thousands of people who came through a legal pathway will quickly face the threat of deportation.

The same arguments that justified the creation of the CHNV Parole are the strongest possible arguments for the redesignation of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for these countries.

As a final act of justice, President Biden can redesignate TPS for these countries and protect more than 400,000 people from deportation, which will lead to a bleak future at best and their death at worst.

Congress is deeply divided on providing a path to permanent protections for undocumented immigrants. Lawmakers cannot agree on a legislative solution, which is why immigrant communities have pinned their hopes on President Biden. The Executive Branch can redesignate, designate, or extend Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and designate Deferred Enforced Departure (DED).

Immigrant rights organizations have clearly committed to protecting families across the United States. At a time of fear, our communities will continue to unite, organize, educate, and defend each other. The fight for permanent protection is not over. Directly-impacted families and their allies will continue to advocate until a just reform is achieved.

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The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) promotes a world free of violence, inequality, and oppression. Guided by the Quaker belief in the divine light within each person, we nurture the seeds of change and the respect for human life to fundamentally transform our societies and institutions. We work with people and partners worldwide, of all faiths and backgrounds, to meet urgent community needs, challenge injustice, and build peace.

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