Migrants on hunger strike ask Biden to extend TPS as a Christmas gift

This Monday marked one week since the start of the hunger strike launched by members of the National TPS Alliance organization in the vicinity of the Supreme Court in Washington. The freezing temperatures have not deterred the dozen migrants from their attempt to ask President Joe Biden for a protective measure before Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20. They are asking for an extension of the Special Protection Status (TPS) to legally reside in the country for 18 more months and to complicate the deportation plans of the incoming administration. The president-elect has been clear about his intentions to eliminate immigration relief programs such as humanitarian parole, CBP One appointments, and TPS.

The hunger strike is part of a week of action against deportations called by the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM) on the occasion of International Migrants Day, last Wednesday. “We are aware of the threats that are coming from the Trump administration [...] The hunger strike is to apply pressure and demand that Biden take action before Christmas,” said José Palma, coordinator of the Alliance. The protesters are confident that by repeating actions like these (which were also carried out during Trump’s first term) they will be able to remain in the country.

The protesters are staying in a Methodist church in the capital, and are provided with supplies of water and isotonic solution. They will undergo regular stress tests to check their health.

Promulgated by Republican President George H. W. Bush, TPS was created to protect migrants who are in the United States and cannot return to their countries of origin due to natural disasters or internal conflicts that put their safety, or even their lives, at risk. This benefit allows them to work legally, and can be extended for six, 12, or 18 months. Currently, more than 600,000 immigrants from 16 countries have TPS, but if it were to be revoked, they would have to leave the country, which for many is unthinkable because it would mean separating from their families.

“Many children like me, who are American citizens, with parents with or without TPS, are at risk of family separation, and we are doing this hunger strike before Christmas to receive the gift of TPS extension or reassignment,” Marilyn Miranda, a 15-year-old American girl who joined the protest to support her mother, who has been in the country for 20 years and will lose her permit if it is not renewed in March 2025, told Telemundo.

Another of the strikers, Neida Mejía, originally from Honduras and a beneficiary of TPS for more than two decades, has permission to remain until next July and fears that she will not be able to see her U.S.-born grandchildren again. At her side, Soledad Miranda, a Salvadoran who has been in the country for more than 30 years, asks Biden not to turn a blind eye after he promised that he would work during his first 100 days in office on the immigration status of millions of immigrants, yet in the last days of his term, he has still not fulfilled his pledge. “The first Trump administration was a disaster for us because TPS was cancelled. We had to fight it in court and in the end we managed to stay thanks to winning one extension after another [...] We pay taxes here, I think it is fair that after all these years we have residence, but now we have neither residence nor an extension,” she lamented.

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