Issued November 04, 2017
WASHINGTON— In response to a news report that the State Department is recommending that TPS be terminated for Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Haiti, SEIU Executive Vice President and iAmerica President, Rocio Sáenz issued the following statement:
"Given the conditions in the affected countries, the State Department recommendation can only be understood in the context of politicization and anti-immigrant animus that has now infected the Trump Administration top to bottom. The TPS recipients whose future is at stake are long-term residents who have been living and working here legally for many years, working in stable jobs, paying taxes, supporting families, and otherwise contributing to their communities. They have more than 270,000 U.S. citizen children and thousands of U.S. citizen grandchildren.
I call on the Department of Homeland Security, which must make the final decision, to listen to the near-unanimous chorus of expert voices including faith leaders and national security experts who have visited the sending countries and -- as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has pointed out -- business owners who stand to lose skilled and valuable workers. It is not too late to make the right decision for all of us and to extend TPS for these good people.