A group of Temporary Protected Status holders launched a 12-week “Journey for Justice” Friday at Los Angeles City Hall in an effort to defend the program.
The caravan of TPS holders plan to travel to 50 cities in the coming months to participate events, rallies, roundtable discussions and other activities while advocating for the TPS program and a pathway to permanent residency for its participants.
The TPS program offers a provisional reprieve from deportation to citizens of some countries, but the Trump administration has terminated legal protection for nearly half a million immigrants who were in the program.
Participants in the Journey for Justice launch ceremony included Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, City Councilman Curren Price, Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Los Angeles, Assembly members Wendy Carillo and Miguel Santiago, D-Los Angeles, and local labor leaders.
“Ending TPS betrays the very heart of who we are as Angelenos and Americans,” Garcetti said. “Our country should not be in the business of threatening to separate citizen children from their immigrant parents. As the riders in the `TPS Journey for Justice’ remind us, these men and women strengthen our economy, culture and society, and they must be allowed to remain in their homes and communities.”
The Journey for Justice was organized by the Central American Resource Center and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.
“`As a mother of two U.S. citizen children, a homeowner and a TPS holder, I am joining the `TPS Journey for Justice’ because immigrant families cannot succumb to fear, regardless of the political circumstances we face,” said Milagro Rivas, a member of the National TPS Alliance. “This journey is an attempt to lift our voices and challenge the cruel dehumanization and criminalization of immigrant families throughout the United States.”