AURORA | In a recent letter to the Department of Homeland Security, Aurora Congressman Mike Coffman, who is reportedly tight battle for re-election, says the conditions that the agency claims have improved enough to warrant the return of hundreds of thousands of Central American immigrants under the temporary protected status program, aren’t what DHS is claiming.
The plight of El Salvador refugees and immigrants in and near Aurora was the focus of Sentinel investigation earlier this month.
“The State Department provided a letter to you (dated October 31, 2017) stating that conditions in El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, and Nicaragua no longer support TPS designation, in spite of the facts familiar to those that I have noted above in the case of El Salvador,” Coffman wrote in the September 26 letter. “In each of these countries, the condition reports prepared by the State Department highlight serious problems that continue to bedevil them. These included natural disasters that have prevented countries from making improvements or repairs; the inability of the governments to handle the economic pressure of the returning former TPS beneficiaries; increased crime and gang activity; and the likelihood of increased illegal immigration.”
The program is set to end Sept. 19, 2019, for Salvadoran immigrants covered by the program. In Aurora, nearly 4,000 Salvadorans call the metro Denver city home now, according to the El Salvador consulate, located in Aurora.
As Coffman notes, many of Aurora’s TPS immigrants came to the country under the program after a 7.6 magnitude earthquake in 2001. Since then the federal government has extended the program. But this year the Trump administration said the status is no longer needed.
There are nearly half a million people living in the U.S. under TPS. If their status changes, they’ll be forced to leave the U.S. or they’ll be residing in the country illegally.
Coffman urged DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen in his letter to support extension of the program.
“…I believe the recommendation was based upon an erroneous interpretation of the facts,” Coffman wrote. “Conditions in these countries were then and are now such that I believe TPS should be extended for all of these countries.”
Immigrants from El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Haiti, Sudan and Nepal are living in the country under TPS.
“In addition, suddenly ending TPS for those prevention in the U.S. raises serious humanitarian concerns for the U.S. citizen children of these TPS holders. {potentially, these TPS authorized parents aren guardians will have to decide whether to bring their U.S. citizen children to a country they have never been to and have no attachment to, or leave them in the U.S.”
Coffman sponsored two pieces of legislation this year aiming to help prevent the end of the TPS program. One bill seeks to align the end date of each TPS program. The other piece would end the program in three years and give the people in the program permanent residency.
— KARA MASON, Staff Writer
