For immediate release
December 8, 2020
UNITE HERE Statement on Extension of Temporary Protected Status
Statement from Enrique Fernandez, UNITE HERE Vice President for Immigration, Diversity and Civil Rights
We are extremely pleased by the DHS notice extending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and validity of TPS-related documentation for TPS holders from El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, and Sudan.
Thousands of UNITE HERE members in states like Arizona, California, New York, Florida, and Nevada are TPS holders who are fundamental to the growth and advancement of this country. For this reason and more, UNITE HERE and our members have spent years pushing Donald Trump and his administration, on Capitol Hill, in the courts, and in their communities.
This action protects the legal status of thousands of people, including 130,000 essential workers and over 270,000 U.S. citizen children. It will keep families together for now, but our work is not finished. Until there is a permanent solution, TPS holders will remain in a state of uncertainty.
Our union committed months to Take Back our country and vote Donald Trump out of office because we knew a new administration was the only way we could secure real change for working people at home and at work. We look forward to working with president-elect Joe Biden and his administration on establishing a permanent solution that will give TPS holders a pathway to citizenship.