*Update: Several hours after this story was published, the Supreme Court ruled that for now the Trump Administration can move forward in ending TPS for Venezuelans. As referenced below, a federal judge had previously halted that decision. 

Temporary Protected Status provides refuge for migrants who can't safely return to their home countries. Tens of thousands of Honduran nationals are waiting anxiously as their status is set to expire in July.

"We’ve had 25 years of them giving us TPS. And for them to say that they’re going to cancel it, it’s a big hit," says G., who's been living in North Carolina for the past two decades. WFDD is using her first initial because she's currently in sensitive immigration proceedings. 

“You have a hope for all those years that they might give you residency,” G. says. She and others are weighing their options should their protected status end. 

Brajan Funes came to the United States when he was four. His parents had fled Honduras two years earlier after Hurricane Mitch destroyed their home. The natural disaster prompted President Bill Clinton to extend TPS to Hondurans in 1999, and Funes’ parents successfully applied. 

Funes has a tattoo of a bald eagle perched in front of an American flag on his upper arm. Despite the fact that his legal status is conditional, he says his roots are in Winston-Salem. 

"I'm an immigrant, and I'm a TPS immigrant. … I wasn’t born on this land, but I want to be buried on it. This is home," Funes says. 

Funes is an advocate for immigrant rights and established a soccer league that's become a place to build community. He says, regardless of fellow players’ immigration status, “We just want to play soccer, and we appreciate them for being who they are.” He adds that he wants others in his community “to know how to protect themselves.” 

When Congress passed the landmark Immigration Act of 1990, it established TPS as a refuge, but the stopgap program didn’t open a new pathway to citizenship or permanent residency, commonly referred to as a Green Card. 

“That's been a terrible oversight by administrations in the past,” says immigration attorney Helen Parsonage. She’s been fielding more calls from TPS holders seeking recourse if their status expires. Compared to permanent residence, TPS is a lesser status that can be taken away, she says.    

Under the Trump administration, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem has moved to end protected status early for Venezuelans. A federal judge recently halted that decision, allowing Venezuelans to maintain their status as litigation continues. Meanwhile, the administration has made no indication that it will extend TPS for other participants.

Past administrations have had little interest in ending TPS for select groups, Parsonage says, because they "have social security numbers and pay taxes."

TPS holders can have US citizen family members petition for Green Cards on their behalf, if they have clean criminal records and no immigration violations, Parsonage says. That’s the bid G. is making, but she says, according to her lawyer, it might take up to a year and a half before she gets an answer. 

“I’m very worried not just for myself, but for all the people in the United States without status,” G. says. 

Funes says he can apply for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), the program President Barack Obama established to protect undocumented children of migrants from deportation, should TPS expire. He's frustrated, though, that his parents don’t have this option.

As the window for action on TPS for Hondurans narrows, Funes is holding out for a solution. “Hope is like the sun,” he says, quoting Princess Leia of Star Wars, “if you only believe in it when you see it, you'll never make it through the night.”

*Correction: A previously aired version of this story identified the status in question as "Temporary Protective Status." This version correctly identifies it as "Temporary Protected Status."

 

 

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