Ending Temporary Protected Status program is a moral and economic catastrophe

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On June 25, six conservative Supreme Court justices cleared the way for the Trump administration to enact the largest elimination of legal status from immigrants in modern American history. This ruling will not only destroy families and upend communities — it will harm our economy.

In Mullin v. Doe, the Republican-appointed justices gave the president a green light to destroy the Temporary Protected Status program. Congress created this program in 1990 to provide legal status for immigrants from countries facing dangerous conditions, like war and natural disasters. Status-holders are hard-working members of our communities who have complied with legal requirements, and undergone a long process to be allowed to live in the United States.

The 1.3 million Temporary Protected Status holders from 17 designated countries are a vital part of our communities and our economy. They contribute approximately $29 billion to the U.S. economy and pay nearly $8 billion in combined federal, state, local and payroll taxes. Contrary to what the Trump administration says, they are ineligible for major federally-funded public benefits, including food stamps and housing assistance — despite their economic contributions.

Many beneficiaries work in industries with severe worker shortages, like healthcare and care of our elderly and disabled. As the Trump administration moves to terminate almost all temporary status designations, thousands of Americans could lose their home health aides and other nursing staff. This coming labor shortage will increase the cost of health services for the elderly at the time when demand for home health aides and nursing home care already outpaces the labor supply. This is why American businesses that rely on these workers have lobbied Congress and the Trump administration to continue these protections.

Terminating Temporary Protected Status will devastate the 1.3 million status-holders and the 800,000 U.S. citizen adults and children who live with them. It will impose costs on millions of people around the country who depend on them in industries like healthcare, manufacturing, transportation and retail.

These consequences hit home. One of my constituents, Daniel, from El Salvador, was detained by federal immigration agents during a raid at his workplace. They did not care that he had TPS and a valid work permit, or that he had no criminal record. Now Daniel languishes in a detention center in Georgia. He missed his daughter’s graduation and is missing precious time with his family.

It’s also cruel to send people to countries facing severe humanitarian crises, like Haiti and Syria. Recently, the administration deported 146 Venezuelans, are now feared dead in the aftermath of the devastating June 24 earthquakes in that country.

Moreover, U.S. government policies have played a role in exacerbating the humanitarian crises in many countries designated for protected status, like Venezuela, El Salvador, Yemen and Sudan. Simply put, the only justification for arbitrarily ripping away legal status from vetted individuals who are essential workers in our communities is the Trump administration’s racism and anti-immigrant sentiment.

The right-wing Supreme Court justices claimed there was no evidence that racial animus motivated these decisions — even though the president falsely claimed Haitian immigrants were eating pets, and called these nations “s—hole countries.” The right-wing justices abdicated their role in favor of the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant agenda.

Congress must act. Congress’s failure to enact commonsense immigration reform for 40 years has led us to this point. We must end the systemic failures of the immigration system, including the uncertainty and exploitation that many immigrants face even with legal status in the U.S. No more half-measures, and no more blank checks for Department of Homeland Security terror in our communities.

In the short-term, labor unions, faith communities, community organizations and lawmakers must urgently rally behind legislation like the SECURE Act and the Dream and Promise Act to protect Temporary Protected Status-holders and other immigrants in jeopardy, and provide a pathway to citizenship so that our communities are not held hostage. And our coalition must keep up the pressure on Congress until we finally enact comprehensive immigration reform that benefits all of us and fixes our broken immigration system.

In this volatile moment, we must double down on the organizing that immigrant communities have always led to secure our rights. Those who have worked hard and invested in our country belong here. It’s time our government realized that.

Jesús “Chuy” García is a congressman representing Illinois’s 4th Congressional District.

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Mullin v. Doe

Supreme Court

Temporary Protected Status program

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