The “TPS Journey for Justice” bus will stop in Riverhead Sunday.
The bus, carrying a group of about 50 immigrants, their families and civil rights advocates is touring the country to support permanent residency for people living in the U.S. under Temporary Protected Status.
The tour started in Los Angeles on Aug. 17 and has been organized by the National TPS Alliance — a group comprising more than 10 national non-profit organizations, as well as 40 committees across the country. The alliance advocates for legislation to protect TPS holders whose status is in jeopardy since the Trump administration ended the program last year.
One of the committees is based in Riverhead and represents immigrants with TPS living on the East End, home to a large number of people from El Salvador, and other Central and South American countries.
According to National TPS Alliance Riverhead committee coordinator Miguel Flores of East Quogue, the purpose of the “TPS Journey for Justice” is to raise awareness at the local level on this issue by bringing to each town they stop at — about 40 in total — “a sample of TPS holders from across America” so people can see that they are “real, good, hard-working individuals, whose families will be permanently affected, even separated.”
Along the way, different TPS holders from different states have gotten on and off the bus.
“We are not criminals, we have been living in America for decades and in order to do that we cannot have a [criminal] record. We are business owners, we have families. We think communities across the U.S., especially white people, should know we are good people and contributing members of society,” Flores said.
Flores immigrated from el Salvador in 1999. He said the conditions in his country forced him to migrate and he chose the U.S. because he saw it as a “land of opportunity.”
He applied to the TPS program — a humanitarian program in which immigrants were granted work permits and protected from deportation because of natural disasters, war and other conditions in their home countries that prevented them from returning there safely. Thanks to the program, Flores was able to obtain his work permit and driver’s license in the U.S.
During almost two decades, Flores has maintained a lawful status through the TPS program, which he has had to renew every 18 months. At every renewal he has been fingerprinted for FBI background checks to establish he has maintained a clean criminal record.
He said the TPS cancellation will affect him severely and he decided to join National TPS Alliance, because he “believes in their mission.”
Flores said he has been employed for several years at a “high-end, very prestigious company” on the East End and once he loses his status, he will have to leave his job. He will also lose his health insurance when that happens. He said he has paid taxes all this time and saved for his retirement in the U.S. His driver’s license will also expire soon.
“They are forcing me to become one more of the millions of people living undocumented here,” he said. “It’s inhumane, unjust, I will lose everything and it is not right. I have followed all the rules, learned to love this country and lived my life as best as I could.”
On Sunday, Flores will become one of the “TPS Journey for Justice” riders, when he will board the bus and tell his story to people everywhere from here to Michigan, where he will get off on Oct.14. and come back home.
The project has been financed by national and local organizations, as well as private citizens, who have provided lodging, food, gas and have coordinated events along the way.
One of the local organizations supporting this initiative is the North Fork Spanish Apostolate, which is inviting the community to participate Sunday and will provide lunch for everybody. According to organizers, other activities, such as a raffle, are also scheduled.
The bus will arrive in Riverhead at 1 p.m. Sunday, according to organizers, and will park at 546 St. John’s Place, right next to St. John’s Church, for about two to three hours.
“This is an opportunity for people to learn about TPS and what it is,” North Fork Spanish Apostolate director Sister Margaret Smyth said. “It’s also an opportunity to learn about actions that can be taken to help bring TPS into full residence.”
According to the Center for Migration Studies there are 26,000 TPS holders in all of New York, one of six U.S. states with the largest TPS populations.
Last year, the Department of Homeland Security chose not to renew the decades-long program affecting TPS holders from 13 countries, including El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Sudan and Haiti. The government argued then that the conditions that served as the basis for the program are no longer applicable.
On Long Island alone, about 14,700 Salvadoran TPS holders will be affected, according to a Suffolk Department of Economic Development and Planning analysis cited in a January 2018 letter to members of Congress from Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone and Nassau County Executive Laura Curran.
The county executives warned members of Congress that “the TPS decision could ultimately result in a massive economic hit to Long Island,” pointing to an estimate in the analysis that “shows a reduction of $1.4 billion in economic output, $395 million in reduced earnings, a potential loss of nearly 13,500 jobs, and an $860 million hit in reduced Gross Domestic Product.”
On Wednesday night, a federal judge in California granted a preliminary injunction to plaintiffs in a class action suit filed in March. The ruling suspends the administration’s order canceling TPS for El Salvador, Nicaragua, Haiti and Sudan while the case is litigated.
U.S. District Judge Edward Chen, in a 43-page decision, said the plaintiffs “raised serious questions” whether the actions of the homeland security agency canceling the program were “influenced by the White House and based on animus against non-white, non-European immigrants in violation of Equal Protection guaranteed by the Constitution,” the judge wrote.
“The balance of hardships … tips sharply in favor of TPS beneficiaries and their families. And plaintiffs have made substantial showing on the merits of their claims, both on the facts and the law,” the judge ruled.
“The issues are at least serious enough to preserve the status quo” and leave the program in place until the case is resolved, according to the order.
The Department of Justice said in a statement Wednesday night it “completely rejects the notion that the White House or the Department of Homeland Security did anything improper. We will continue to fight for the integrity of our immigration laws and our national security.” The DOJ said the decision “usurps the role of the executive branch in our constitutional order.” It is unclear whether the administration will appeal the ruling.
The “TPS Journey for Justice” bus is expected to arrive in Brentwood Saturday and travel to Riverhead Sunday. After Riverhead, it will stop at Setauket and Manhattan and then proceed on its interstate journey, with a final stop in Washington D.C. on Nov. 9.
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