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Approximately 200,000 Salvadorans who have been living on Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in the U.S. since two earthquakes damaged the Central American nation in 2001 will have to return to El Salvador by September 2019. The Trump administration is also forcing 45,000 Haitians who lost their homes in the 2010 earthquake off of TPS and back to Haiti. Along with the 800,000 undocumented children who lost their DACA protection in 2017, the total is more than 1 million people that the Trump administration is forcing back to the country of their ancestry. That will leave fewer than 100,000 people protected by TPS, which is a program President Bush created in 1990.
Discussion Questions
1. Should all people in America protected by TPS be sent back home? If so, after how much time under protection? If not, why not?
2. What should happen to children who have U.S. citizenship if their parents are sent back to their nation of birth?
3. When refugees are taken in to escape natural disaster or war, should there be a standard for how long they can stay? Should exceptions be made depending on family circumstances?
All people in America protected by TPS should not be sent back to their home town if it is in a life threating environment. Such as places that are affected by the natural disasters http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42251921. People should not be forced to returned to a home that is inhabitable. If Haiti is habitable and people are able to live comfortably within their home then they should be able to return to Haiti.
ReplyDeleteOn the official US Dept. of Homeland Security site they do talk about the requirements for TPS and specify multiple times that it is intended to be temporary and I personally believe that the individuals currently allowed to live/work in the US should be returned to their country of origin if their initial qualification for TPS has "expired." They can still apply for legal immigration if they so choose, but with no special notice of their time under TPS. As for their children, they must decide. In my opinion, legal adults (over 18 years old) that are still closely related to their family must decide individually. Legal children, in spite of their US citizenry, should (and likely want to) remain with their parents. Most/all of them do qualify for Salvadorean citizenships under Salvadorean citizenship law and could return legally.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately even if children have US citizenship, they will have to follow their parents back to their nation of birth. The parents could apply for a citizenship so their family can stay. Unless they can stay in the US with another family member, I don't see how they can stay in the US. This administration makes immigration very strict :(
ReplyDeleteWhile the idea of children who have US citizenship being able to stay in the US sounds like a good idea, unless they are old enough to make it on their own they will end up following their parents back. I would assume they would be able to keep their US citizenship though, and maybe return back to the US in the future if they choose. Also, yes adults could apply for legal status, in my mind, considering our current government, the likelihood of many of these people being granted legal status is slim. Also, has the government realized that this will make the already present labor shortage, worse?
ReplyDeleteTrump's administration is forcing people back to their country of ancestry after they took refuge in the US. These people left their country from the natural disasters that occurred recently. I personally believe that these individuals are allowed to stay in the US and not have to be forced back to where they came from. TPS should protect everyone, and there shouldn't be a time limit in which they can stay. It's not fair, and it should be the individual's opinion in whether to stay or go back not the government. President Bush's program of TPS has helped many people who have faced hardships in their home countries and its not right to force them back. Even if they don't want to leave.
ReplyDeleteIf children have a US citizenship, but their parents are sent home they should be able to choose to stay or leave if they are old enough to decide. If they are too young to decide, they should go with their parents and come back to the US if they want to later in life.
ReplyDeleteIf the United States is going to have a program like TPS, the people that are let in the country must be sent back to their country they came from because otherwise it’s just basically granting people free citizenship. However, this should be done on a reasonable time table, not after over a decade like the 200,000 Salvadorans who have been here in the US since 2001 because moving the people after 17 years would do more harm than good. If given that much time to settle in the people become part of the economy and really take root in the country. According to the New York Times, $4.6 billion were sent to El Salvador in 2016 from Salvadorans mostly in the US to support the people still in El Salvador, and taking all of that away would not only have a negative impact on the US economy, but also El Salvador’s economy since that $4.6 billion represented 17% of its economy; eliminating that flow of money would devastate the already struggling economy in El Salvador. So sending the Salvadorans who are currently on TPS back isn’t practical, especially those who have children that are fully legal citizens because they were born here. To solve this issue with future TPS holders I think that a clause must be enacted that says those who are born in the US with parents that have TPS share this status with their parents and aren’t granted full citizenship so the program is allowed to function the way it was designed.
ReplyDeleteI think that people under the TPS program should be able to live in the US until their country of ancestry has recovered from the disaster and the people could move back and continue their life in their country. If people are not sent back the program is basically granting them free citizenship. The 14th amendment states that anyone born in the US is automatically a citizen so this makes it the parents choice to either leave their kid in the US or take them back to their country of ancestry.
ReplyDeleteAll people in America that are protected by Temporary Protected Status (TPS) should not be sent back to their homes in September of 2019. TPS is meant to be temporary but according to the article these individuals have been in the US for so long that they now consider the US their home. Furthermore, many Salvadorans have lived in the US for more than 20 years. Leaving their original home in Salvador due to a devastating natural disaster. But, many have restarted their lives in the US and now is unable to fathom what it would be like to be forced to be sent back to Salvador and live there again. One man in the video in the article link stated, "I'm Salvadoran, but I feel American." Personally, forcing them leave again is wrong and unfair to them.
ReplyDeleteThe U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services have stated that the people affected by the earthquakes in El Salvador that have come to the U.S. under the TPS program have 18 months to move back to their homes. The TPS agreement was designed to be a temporary aid solution, a 6 to 18 month period with a possibility of an extension depending on the individual's situation. I think that an additional 18 months is a fair amount of time for those living in the U.S. under TPS to comfortably make arrangements to return to their home. The U.S. has allowed the TPS recipients 18 years to recover from the effects of these earthquakes. That being said, would it be prudent to examine individual cases where TPS recipients have taken steps to become U.S. citizens or where they have made contributions to society, not expecting to have a free ride on the U.S.? Could the U.S. be making a mistake by forcing out talented contributors? Will the U.S. have to pay for the 20,000 El Salvadoran TPS recipients transportation out of the country? What is the true cost of deportation? Since the children are U.S. citizens they have the right to stay in the US. Children “minors” are under the charge of their parents and therefore the parents should decide if their child stays in the U.S, granted that there is a support system provided for the minor. Of course, when they are 18 they are no longer minors and can make their own decisions whether to stay.
ReplyDeleteThe TPS program started by President Bush supports millions of people in American and I think that if they were to be sent back home, they should get more time to make appropriate arrangements. The 18 months that President Trump has offered them is not a substantial amount of time for them to ensure that, for example, they can sustain a life in El Salvador or try to gain citizenship in America. Another factor that plays into this is children who have citizenship, but their parents don't. Trump did not take this into consideration and I think that this is a horrible thing for little kids to have to deal with. Parents should be allowed to stay with their children in American if their child has citizenship because it would be absurd to have to leave them there alone. At the same time, they can all just go back to El Salvador, but that has its own problems. In a Times magazine online, it says how "Salvadorans, with a nation of 6.2 million people, will see a big drop in the amount of cash sent home by countrymen working in the United States." Clearly, there are many downsides to the sudden push for Salvadorans using the TPS agreement, including a big economic crash for them. However I don't think that Trump is doing something wrong because it was a temporary agreement to help them out when the earthquake hit and damaged the entire land and their livelihood. My only main issue with it is that he isn't giving them enough time to figure things out and find a way to live without any problems; it's just too sudden.
ReplyDeleteElsie, I agree when you say that Trump isn't wrong by pushing Salvadorans and Haitians back to their home countries. However, by now they have been living on TPS in the U.S. for a while and should have had enough time to sort things out. If they still want to stay in the U.S., the refugees can legally gain citizenship; and if not, safely go back to their home country. Many people also believe the reason Trump wants to force the refugees back is because he dislikes them as a race, not because it's unethical. Something like removing DACA protection is unethical, but I do believe that he's doing somewhat the right thing here because letting the Salvadorans and Haitians stay in America for this amount of time is almost like they have free citizenship. However, I do agree with you regarding children getting to stay with their parents, as they should be able to live with their family.
DeleteBrianna, I see your point that Trump is doing this because he doesn't like the race, but I think that more than being discriminatory, he mainly only does things because of business reasons and money, however, I understand why many people would think that because I have thought of him like that before and sometimes still do. I do agree with you that the refugees have been living in the U.S. for a while on TPS, however it would be hard for them to make living arrangements in such a short amount of time because it was suddenly thrown at them, with no prior warning.
DeleteThere should be a limit for TPS because in the case of El Salvador, refugees have stayed so long that they consider the US their home. Instead, there should be a program that legally makes the US their home, in the form of citizenship or permanent residency.
ReplyDeleteI do not think that they should be forced back to their countries of origin. Yes of course in the case of the earthquake that happened in El Salvador in 2001 most issues have probably been solved. But like most people were saying, the people have stayed in the US for over 10 years, and have already adapted and made a life for themselves here. because of this I believe they should get the option to stay and not all be forced back. The option to become a legal citizen here should be one of the options instead of just having them be sent back. Overall though I do agree that their homes have probably been restored back in their own country, I think it is unfair for them to be sent back when they most likely have created a life for themselves with jobs, houses, and friends of their own.
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ReplyDeleteTPS is meant to temporary, yet according to the article citizens from El Salvador have been living in the United Sates for over ten years. During these ten years the refugees had to restart their life, and now they are being forced out of the country that they considered their home. Also, it would be ideal for children who have United States Citizenships to stay if their parents are deported, but it can be difficult if they are at a young age because they will be unable to provide. The children who are too young to decide whether or not to stay in the United States can move back when they old enough to make it on their own.
ReplyDeleteThe children should return to their parent's nation of birth. The reason being is that many children will be lonely and unsupervised, many will go hungry and will also be forced out of the country eventually. It sounds crude, and it is, but we can't have children wandering all over the place. The TPS being temporary should be limited to what they can do. For example, the many races that call the U.S their "home" should be able to stay as most of them have probably lived here for almost all of their lives. Even the El Salvadoran government has pleaded with the U.S to extend the length of the program.
ReplyDeleteI very much so agree with Nathan’s perspective on TPS as program, as he referred to the potential dangers of allowing such a large amount of people to assimilate into the US for such a long period of time to the point in which they become crucial to the economy, and likewise, become reliant on it as well. The concept of morality vs technicality is also a major component within the mindset that many people are in on the subject. I personally believe it is a lawful necessity for these people to be returned to their home countries to differentiate between being under a temporary protected status and being given what is essentially citizenship (hence the word “temporary”), however it must be done in a fashion which takes into consideration the difficulties of doing so, as these people have become so ingrained into the United States itself. I believe that an extension is absolutely necessary, as this time is needed for the Salvadorian people to gather themselves. As for the issue of children who were born in the United States, I believe that ultimately should be left up to their legal guardians, as many of them are minors, and thus I believe it to be fit that the parents possess control over where they wish to take them. I think it should be noted that this also seems to be a common trend among the current government administration as well, with President Trump recently repealing protective services for Haitians who immigrated amidst the 2010 earthquake (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/20/us/haitians-temporary-status.html). It also appears that soon this will be the case for many others under TPS, with prime examples being the Nicaraguans and the Hondurans, who remain in a situation of concern as rumors have circulating of their upcoming deadline (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/hondurans-nicaraguans-face-deadline-renew-tps-n834841). I also believe that this decision could be destructive for all countries involved, the most staggering being El Salvador itself. In 2017 alone, El Salvador amounted to around $4.5 billion in remittance, and with the departure of such a large amount of Salvadoran people from the United States, it could be extremely damaging to the countries’ economy. (http://money.cnn.com/2018/01/08/news/economy/el-salvador-remittances/index.html)
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion the government has failed to majorly take into consideration to plethora of issues which accompany the repeal of TPS for the Salvadorian people, and are either blind to, or ignoring the potential consequences of the situation as a whole.
The Temporary Protected Status or TPS, as indicated by the name, is a temporary solution. It’s for those whose countries have become unsuitable to live in. President Trump’s removement of TPS for approximately 200,000 Salvadorans is understandable due to some of the people in the program have been living in the U.S. for over 10 years. Then there is also the problem of the families who have had children in the U.S. under TPS, and those children are U.S. citizens. An idea that I had, was for those families who have had a child while living in the U.S. under TPS to be able to apply for an expedited citizenship to become a citizen of the U.S., But for those living in the U.S. without a child born here, would get sent back to their country of origin.
ReplyDeleteAll the people currently living in the US that are also protected by TPS should not have to go back their home country for two reasons: 1) their home country and where they originally lived could be going through economic/political/geographical problems, and don't feel it would be safe to return. These people should be protected by the TPS until they think it is safe and feel comfortable returning. 2) Some of the protected foreigners might rather live in the US, and then should be allowed to register for a greencard or citizenship, and be supported throughout the process.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with Skylah in that the children of Salvadorian immigrants in the US under TPS should not be forced out since their lives are in the US. In addtion, El Slavador's economy relies heavily upon money sent home to their country by Salvadorinas in the US. In fact, according to NPR, remittances add up to over 4.5 billion dollars annualy, 17% of El Salvador's GDP. Removing this flow of income could further stagnate the Salavorian economy and add to mounting drug and gang related issues, which are much of the reason that TPS was extended in the first place by then president Bush.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very hard situation for the US because they are caring for these immigrants from another country who had just experienced a life changing disaster, however the removal of the TPS will force the US to take action. I believe that the US should allow an opportunity for immigrants with legal children to get citizenship as well as others who don't have a family. However, to carefully take care of the situation where they aren't allowed to grant citizenship, they should allow immigrants currently living in the US to stay until they are financially ready to move on
ReplyDeleteI like what Madison said about the United States becoming home for those who have stayed here for many years. For some immigrants under TPS protection, their home may no longer be in El Salvador. Home is often where our loved ones are, and many have been accompanied on their flight to the United States by their own children and family members, who have now had years to grow and adjust to the American way of life. I think the United States, if anything, should grant those under TPS an extended amount of residence time as well as make American citizenship readily available. Immigrants to the United States under TPS have already found a home here and lawful citizenship should be made much easier for those under its protection to create a smooth transition into an official life here. Unfortunately, according to a FAQ article on TPS, there is no direct route from being a functioning TPS beneficiary to earning a green card and eligibility for a green card is only possible on another basis. It is not right for the President to force so many people back to countries they are no longer familiar with. By removing people and discontinuing TPS policies, the Trump administration is harming those who have finally found home.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Madison when she mentioned that the citizens that have taken refuge here now consider the U.S. their home as they have started a stable, better life here. A considerable chunk of those who have taken refuge here have come from places of violence, poverty, destruction, etc. Those under TPS protection experienced life changing events and have now adapted to a new way of living here in America, like Claire stated. I also agree with Claire on the fact that they should be granted an extended amount of residence/American citizenship. Though it isn't possible, it still is completely wrong for someone to send families back to their countries, forcing them to start new lives once again. The "hardships" the president has had to deal with is nothing compared to the struggles of those under TPS protection have had to endure.
ReplyDeleteChildren who have US citizenship have no choice but to leave with their parents in their nation of birth. This is why government programs should be made for these situations and provide for the children but the instinct is for the children to leave with their parents which isn't safe :(
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