Congress Must Provide Security and Permanency for Dreamers and People with TPS

By Yael Schacher | June 15, 2021

Please see below statement from Refugees International Senior U.S. Advocate Yael Schacher:

“Last week, a unanimous Supreme Court decided that tens of thousands of people who have been living with Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a life-saving humanitarian status, for many years cannot adjust to permanent status from within the United States. These people are members of our communities. They are essential workers and taxpayers. They are the parents of American born children. And they spent the most recent four years worried about being forced to leave all they had built in the United States for countries unsafe to return to because of ongoing violent conflict or the impact of natural disaster.

In her decision, Justice Kagan placed the ball squarely in Congress’s court. Today, on the ninth anniversary of the establishment of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), the Senate is holding a hearing on the Dream and Promise Act, which already passed the House with bipartisan support. It allows Dreamers and those with TPS to apply for permanent residency. Its passage will make the country as a whole stronger, will replace limbo with a path to citizenship for so many of our neighbors, and will open up legal pathways to reunify families with their relatives still living in danger abroad.

Congress has provided such pathways to security for immigrants in the past—and it is long past time that it does so again.”

For more information or to schedule an interview, please contact Sarah Sheffer at ssheffer@refugeesinternational.org.

PHOTO CAPTION: Activists and citizens with temporary protected status (TPS) rally for a pathway to permanent status near Capitol Hill on April 14, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images).