Trump Administration’s War on Vulnerable Immigrants

If anything has become clear about the Trump administration’s immigration priorities, it is that removing the most vulnerable immigrants is top on his list. It isn’t removing “criminal aliens” as he likes to put it. It’s not securing our borders through logical, effective means. It’s full out war on the immigrants most in need of compassion and protections. 

This is clear through his use of Dreamers as a bargaining chip for his restrictive and nationalistic immigration dreams. But it’s even more clear through his administration’s ongoing elimination of TPS designations.

What is TPS you? My guess is that they’re banking on us not knowing and not having the energy to find out. TPS stands for Temporary Protected Status, and is a provision from the Immigration Act of 1990 that allows for the Secretary of Homeland Security to designate nationals from particular countries as protected from deportation due to political unrest, armed conflict, or natural disaster in their home countries. To be eligible you have to be in the United States before the designation took place, apply within a certain window of opportunity, and pass background checks. What you receive is a work permit and protection from deportation for as long as you maintain current status. Once TPS is revoked by the government, you are expected to leave. People with TPS cannot get Green Cards and cannot become citizens.

Currently 10 countries are on the TPS list, but the Trump administration has decided to end designations for three of those countries: Haiti, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. These countries have been crippled by natural disaster, are recovering from armed conflicts, and/or are over-run with corruption and gang violence. To send people back to these countries is to send them to hunger, violence, and in some cases death. It is to upend established families, rip parents from children, and it demonstrates an appalling  disregard for life and family values.

On the campaign trail, Trump claimed to be for legal immigration. When he was called anti-immigrant, his supporters would say he was just against illegal immigration. I call BS. His actions in office against Dreamers and against TPS recipients show the true colors of this administration. He is anti-immigrant. Period.