Photo: Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images
By: EFE
Friday, September 20
Activists demand immigration reform with 400 banners in front of Congress
WASHINGTON – Activists placed this Wednesday in front of the Congress from the United States 400 green banners to claim a immigration reform and the regularization of the almost 400, 000 immigrants living in the country with a temporary permit called Permanent Protective Status (TPS).
The banners are colored green because want to imitate the “green cards” that the US grants to immigrants who have accessed permanent residence and who enjoy greater security than who are undocumented immigrants or have a temporary residence permit.
“We are claiming a permanent residence , green cards, that give stability to migrants and their families, ”explained Patrice Lawrence, co-director of the“ UndocuBlack Network, ”an organization that advocates for the rights of undocumented blacks.
Lawrence, of years, She was born in Jamaica and she herself is undocumented, so she feels especially affected by this cause.
She was one of the organizers of the protest act in which, in addition to fixing the “green cards” on the grass, the activists set up a lectern through which TPS beneficiaries of different nationalities passed to tell their story.
Among them, there was a Nepalese who runs a store and who said that he does 20 years that he has not seen his wife because she stayed in Nepal and he has not been able to leave the United States.
The TPS is a permit you mporal that Washington grants from 1990 to migrants from nations hit by conflict war or natural disasters and that allows them to live and work in the US, but to travel abroad their beneficiaries need to apply for a special permit.
Immigration reform
Democrats, who currently control both houses of Congress and the White House, want to include TPS beneficiaries in a major immigration reform.
In addition, they want to regularize three other groups that do not have papers: the “dreamers” who came to the US irregularly as children, farm workers and those considered essential workers during the pandemic, such as medical personnel.
Republicans have promised to block that immigration reform , so Democrats decided to include her in a plan of social spending that encompasses all the major initiatives of the president Joe Biden , and who want to approve alone using an exceptional mechanism called “reconciliation”.
However, to be able to use that maneuver, they need the go-ahead of the so-called Senate “parliamentarian” Elizabeth MacDonough, who acts as a non-partisan referee on Senate rules.
MacDonough It has already knocked down two attempts by the Democrats to carry out their immigration reform, so this Wednesday Lawrence and the rest of the activists asked the Democrats to ignore it.
Criticize Biden and Democrats
“Don’t make any more excuses,” said Lawrence, who also had very harsh words against the president Joe Biden .
“I think Biden is not doing enough. He should be gathering the votes of all the members of his party right now and he should come out and say in a forceful way that he supports access to citizenship for all individuals, that he supports green cards, ”said the activist.
For their part, the Senate Democrats assure that the fight for the immigration reform has not ended and they remain committed to that cause.
Congress carries 35 years without passing a law allowing a large group of immigrants to access citizenship. The last time was in 1200, when the then president, Ronald Reagan, signed a law that allowed to regularize three million undocumented immigrants.