While Gloria Soto has lived in the U.S. for nearly 25 years now, the outcome of the 2020 presidential election will determine her future in this country. The Texas Tribune reports the Dallas-area mom is one of the over 55,000 immigrants in Texas with Temporary Protected Status, which allows immigrants who can’t return to their countries due to natural disasters or conflicts to live and work here.
Nationally, hundreds of thousands of immigrants are protected by the program, which impeached president Donald Trump has been trying to end—and that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is fighting to protect.
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Gerson Bonilla would be forced to leave the second life he built for himself in the U.S. after fleeing civil war in El Salvador 30 years ago. “Bonilla's journey took him to Houston,” The Texas Tribune reported, “where he found work and got married. He now has four U.S. citizen children, a mortgage and owns an HVAC installation and repair business.”
Soto, originally from Honduras, is also the mom of U.S. citizens. Across the state, nearly 54,000 U.S. citizen kids have parents protected by the program.
While the courts initially blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to terminate status for Bonilla, Soto, and thousands of others, a devastating court ruling last month is allowing officials to go forward with their mass deportation plan as litigation continues. But while the decision is devastating, the two told The Texas Tribune they’re fighting back and speaking out as the end of voting in the election approaches in just days.
“At the beginning it was sad and disappointing and the anxiety came,” Soto told The Texas Tribune, scared of being forced to uproot her family and being sent to a country where she’d have difficulty accessing specialized medical care for her 14-year-old daughter, who was born prematurely. “But at this moment I am really of a strong mind that I am going to fight for my status,” she continued.
As the report notes, families protected by TPS last month launched a bus tour visiting more than 50 cities in over 30 states to educate voters about the program and to urge them to cast their ballot with their families in mind. “With 54 stops in 8 weeks, and following all health protocols in the age of COVID-19, riders on ‘La Libertad’ will be traveling across the country, where they will be accompanied by TPS holders, their friends, and allies at every stop,” The National TPS Alliance said.
The tour made several stops in the state this month, where one new poll has Biden with a narrow lead over Trump. Yes, Trump could lose Texas for the Republicans for the first time in decades.
But what families need is Biden to just win overall. While his plan has pledged to protect the program, it also pledges to put TPS families, as well as families protected by Deferred Enforced Departure, on a path to citizenship, so no president can ever again throw their lives into limbo.
“The Trump administration’s politically-motivated decisions to rescind protected status for hundreds of thousands of people fleeing countries impacted by war and natural disasters—without regard for current country conditions—is a recipe for disaster,” his plan states. “Biden will protect TPS and Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) holders from being returned to countries that are unsafe. TPS/DED holders who have been in the country for an extended period of time and built lives in the U.S. will also be offered a path to citizenship through legislative immigration reform,” it continues.
“Why not give that option to become a resident to those who have a business, those who have property, those who have kids and that have been filing their taxes?” Soto asked. “We have to keep working, we have to survive the pandemic," Bonilla continued to The Texas Tribune. "We’re going to keep moving forward, one way or another, life continues.”
Source: Daily Kos
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