Last Thursday, two dozen TIRRC youth leaders joined a mass mobilization of more than 1000 undocumented youth and their allies in Washington D.C. for Operation Clean Dream Act Now! We need to keep the pressure on!
Caving once again to the demands of white supremacists in the White House, the Trump administration revoked the legal status of 2,500 Nicaraguan Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders. The decision, effective January 5, 2019, follows the termination earlier this year of TPS for Sudanese nationals, effective November 2018. A decision for 57,000 Honduran TPS holders was deferred, automatically triggering a six month extension. A decision on 50,000 Haitian TPS holders is due this Thanksgiving, but the administration has already signaled its intent to terminate. Tennessee is home to more than 3,400 people with TPS, mainly from El Salvador, Haiti, and Honduras.
Last night, Speaker Paul Ryan told a group of Republican lawmakers that protections for immigrant youth will be included in the year end spending bill. Our rallies, calls, emails, and sharing our stories are working, but we can't give up now. Speaker Ryan's comments are a good sign, but we know that we need to keep up the momentum so that Congress follows through and actually passes legislation - without building a wall, increasing immigration enforcement, or passing other harmful amendments that hurt immigrant communities.
On Wednesday night, large crowds gathered at vigils in Nashville, Knoxville, and Chattanooga on the day the Trump administration's third attempt at a Muslim Ban was set to go into effect. Former refugees, those affected by the ban, and faith leaders joined together to say #NoMuslimBanEver and #RefugeesWelcome, while celebrating the court rulings that blocked Muslim Ban 3.0 from going into effect.