Feb 8th, 2021
Washington, DC - Communities United for Status and Protection (CUSP) welcomes Senator Van Hollen’s (D-MD) re-introduction of the SECURE Act. The bill would provide individuals who hold Temporary Protected Status (TPS) with the opportunity to obtain legal permanent residency. The passing of the SECURE Act would bring security and stability to hundreds of thousands of TPS holders who have hoped and advocated for decades. It would give thousands of families the opportunity to finally cease living from deadline to deadline, which temporary status fosters, and truly build a permanent home.
While CUSP welcomes the opportunity for Congress to pass the SECURE Act, we also acknowledge that this is just one step in securing a pathway for permanent residency for all members of our communities. We continue to push for pathways to citizenship for all.
“I have called this country home for 20 years, yet it has been a temporary one. I am hoping that one day, I will get the privilege to call this country my permanent home. I want our lawmakers to know that TPS holders are valuable, hard-working people in the community and that our lives and futures should not be in constant limbo. I am happy to hear that Senator Van Hollen, who has been a supporter of ours, has reintroduced the SECURE Act in the Senate. I hope that this will finally bring the relief we have been seeking and advocating for!”
Rose Micelle Tilus, Haitian TPS Holder, Nurse Practitioner
“I am a proud single mother of a daughter who is working as a nurse. Within a couple of years of getting my work permit through TPS, I was able to acquire two businesses (gas station and convenience stores), in Dallas, and in Texarkana. TPS has given this mother and daughter the opportunities that we could never have imagined back in Nepal, especially as a single mother family. Yet, the uncertainty that TPS entails has been very stressful for us. We need permanent residency so that I can grow my businesses further, my daughter can be ensured of longer-term employment in health services, and we can both continue to give back to the community the way we always have been even while in temporary status. As one of the over 2,500 TPS holders from Nepal, we are calling on Senator Cornyn and Cruz to go beyond partisan politics and support us, their constituents. We are building the economy of Texas at this critical time. Texas is our home and community.”
Namrata Pokhrel, Nepali TPS holder from Texas
“For the past four years, we have been engulfed by the Trump administration’s relentless abuse of our community, which included the termination of DACA, and other measures that put immigrants at serious risk of unnecessarily losing their status and the lives they’ve built in the U.S. We have lived through the consequences of mere temporary solutions to critical immigration issues, and we will no longer accept anything less than permanent protections for our people. We are encouraged by the re-introduction of the SECURE Act, and we look forward to the future re-introduction of the American Dream and Promise Act--two bills that aim at protecting more and more members of our communities. We won’t stop until this is done. The SECURE Act is a welcome first step and advances us towards our goal of citizenship for all 11 million undocumented immigrants.”
Patrice Lawrence, Co-directory of UndocuBlack Network
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About Communities United for Status and Protection (CUSP) and its Core Organizations:
Communities United for Status and Protection (CUSP) is a collaborative of grassroots immigrant community organizations working together to win permanent status for our members and communities, and build a more inclusive immigrant rights movement that centers the needs and experiences of African, Afro-Caribbean, Afro-Latinx, Arab/Middle Eastern, and API immigrants.
The UndocuBlack Network (UBN), founded in 2016, is a multigenerational network of currently and formerly undocumented Black people that fosters community, facilitates access to resources and contributes to transforming the realities of our people so we are thriving and living our fullest lives. UBN has chapters in New York City, the DC/MD/VA area, and Los Angeles, CA.
Adhikaar (Nepali: rights) is a New York-based non-profit, organizing the Nepali-speaking community to promote human rights and social justice for all. We are a women-led workers’ center and community center focused on workers’ rights, immigration rights, access to affordable healthcare and language justice. We organize the Nepali-speaking community to create broader social change; build coalitions on advocacy campaigns that address our community's needs; center women and the most impacted communities in our leadership; engage members in participatory action research; and implement community education, workplace development training, and support services.
African Communities Together (ACT) is an organization of African immigrants fighting for civil rights, opportunity, and a better life for our families here in the U.S. and worldwide. ACT empowers African immigrants to integrate socially, get ahead economically, and engage civically. We connect African immigrants to critical services, help Africans develop as leaders, and organize our communities on the issues that matter.
Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit community organization based in Southern California that advocates for fair and humane immigration policies and connects migrants with humanitarian, legal, and social services, with a particular focus on Black migrants, the Haitian community, women, LGBTQAI+ individuals and survivors of torture and other human rights abuses. Since 2015, HBA has provided services to asylum seekers and other migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, in U.S. detention, and during U.S. immigration proceedings.
National Network for Arab American Community (NNAAC) is a national consortium of independent Arab American community-based organizations. The Network’s primary mission is to build the capacity of Arab American non profit organizations that focus on the needs and issues impacting their local community while collectively addressing those issues nationally.
