Caribbean-American Democratic Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke mentioned on Thursday that she was “devastated and infuriated” over President Trump’s plans to finish Momentary Protected Standing (TPS) for over 1 million immigrants from a number of international locations.
Clarke, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, who represents the 9th Congressional District in Brooklyn, mentioned these immigrants are searching for refuge from political violence, battle, pure disasters, and excessive climate occasions because of the impacts of local weather change.
“I’m devastated and infuriated to listen to of the Trump administration’s plans to finish Momentary Protected Standing for greater than 1 million immigrants from over 17 international locations, together with Haiti and Venezuela,” Clarke, additionally the brand new chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, advised Caribbean Life.
“To deport people and their households again to international locations going through escalating violence, war-torn circumstances, and political unrest is merciless and inhumane,” she added. “Make no mistake: President Trump has primarily issued a dying sentence to many immigrants whose security was promised beneath these protections.”
Within the face of worldwide migration rising into an unprecedented humanitarian disaster over current years, the congresswoman famous that TPS has endured since 1990 as “a vital software to safeguard our world’s most susceptible peoples and to supply them with alternatives to pursue employment and construct the lives they deserve.
“It’s a authorized technique of extending the US’ humanitarian efforts in direction of these most in want of them,” Clarke mentioned. “Sadly, and tragically, this administration has determined to weaponize and undercut TPS’s true function to additional its despicable anti-immigrant agenda. And that’s shameful past phrases.”
On Wednesday, the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), an umbrella coverage and advocacy group that represents over 200 immigrant and refugee rights teams all through New York, warned that Venezuelan nationals in New York are vulnerable to deportation within the wake of Trump’s revocation of TPS for Venezuela.
“Trump’s revocation of TPS for Venezuela is a merciless escalation of his mass deportation agenda, prioritizing enforcement over humanitarian options,” Murad Awawdeh, NYIC’s president and chief government officer, advised Caribbean Life.
“The devastating resolution can have penalties for tons of of 1000’s of Venezuelans who’ve constructed their lives in the US, together with those that name New York house,” he added. “Households will now face the truth of uprooting their lives they labored so exhausting to construct right here and returning to a rustic that’s nonetheless grappling with the political and financial turmoil they escaped.
“The Trump administration ought to be defending – not punishing – individuals who have sought security from disaster and instability and who’ve been contributing to New York’s economic system,” continued Awawdeh, urging the New York Congressional Delegation to “act now to supply everlasting protections for all TPS holders who face the specter of pressured removing beneath inhumane insurance policies.”
Earlier this week, the US Homeland Safety Secretary, Kristi Noem, introduced that the Trump administration will revoke the TPS designation for Venezuela, leaving tons of of 1000’s vulnerable to deportation and with out work permits.
Awawdeh mentioned the short-term humanitarian program protected about 350,000 Venezuelans who sought refuge in the US over the previous few years resulting from political and financial turmoil of their house nation.
Awawdeh mentioned this revocation solely impacts Venezuelans who acquired TPS on Oct. 3, 2023.
“These people will lose standing and work authorization at 11:59 PM native time on April 7, 2025,” he mentioned. “Nonetheless, this termination doesn’t apply to Venezuelan nationals who utilized for and acquired TPS beneath the 2021 designation, which can stay in impact till Sept. 10, 2025.”
The San Diego, CA-based Haitian Bridge Alliance has additionally strongly condemned the Trump administration’s termination of TPS for about 600,000 Venezuelans residing in the US.
“This motion, introduced by Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem, not solely jeopardizes the protection and well-being of numerous people but in addition contradicts America’s international dedication to human rights and humanitarian ideas,” Haitian Bridge Alliance Govt Director Guerline Josef advised Caribbean Life.
In pointing to information from the United Nations Excessive Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), she mentioned greater than 7.7 million Venezuelans have left the nation in the hunt for safety and a greater life, “making it one of many largest displacement crises on this planet.”
Josef mentioned the bulk—over 6.5 million folks—have been hosted in Latin American and Caribbean international locations.
“Inside Venezuela, the state of affairs stays dire,” she mentioned, stating that an estimated 7.6 million persons are in want of humanitarian help, “struggling to entry sufficient healthcare, vitamin, and important providers.
“The termination of TPS ignores these harsh realities, successfully condemning 1000’s to return to life-threatening circumstances,” Josef added. “This resolution is emblematic of the administration’s broader xenophobic agenda, which seeks to marginalize immigrant communities and dismantle programs of safety for essentially the most susceptible.
“It perpetuates a story that devalues the lives of these searching for security and undermines the wealthy range that strengthens our nation,” she continued. “Such actions serve solely to sow division and perpetuate systemic injustices towards marginalized populations.”
