Representatives of the Nicaraguan diaspora and exile in the United States welcomed the decision of the Government of that country to extend the protection status to migrants from Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Nepal, known as TPS (for its acronym in English), but insisted in which the approval of laws that offer greater security to the permanence of migrants is needed.
Haydée Castillo, from the organization Nicaraguans around the World, said she welcomed the fact that the Joe Biden administration has extended the “Temporary Protection” benefit for Nicaraguans, Salvadorans, Hondurans and Nepalis, who are already registered with TPS.
The program known as TPS was approved for the first time for Nicaraguan migrants in 1999 in the context of the disaster caused by the passage of Hurricane Mitch in 1998. Already in 2021, some 4,250 Nicaraguans had Protection Status, according to data from the Security Service. Immigration and Citizenship of the United States (USCIS). From the first approval until today, migrant organizations have maintained high-profile activism to win each extension.
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For Castillo, this extension of the TPS “is an opportunity to raise our voices in the sense of the need to (have) a TPS for Nicaraguans who are fleeing all the aberrations, all the persecution and the political crisis that the Ortega Murillo dictatorship and that has caused the migration of almost 10% of the economically active population of Nicaragua.
For his part, Manuel Prado, president of the Nicaraguan American Foundation, stressed that “the extension of TPS for Nicaraguans is a demonstration that the destabilization of the hemisphere is a focal point for the Biden administration.”
Prado pointed out that having managed to get the US administration to extend TPS “demonstrates the growing power of lobbying that the Nicaraguan diaspora has.”
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He added that, apart from the extension of TPS, there are three proposed laws that are in a position of priority for the diaspora, “to give a more permanent solution” to the situation of Nicaraguan migrants.
The proposals for which the diaspora is lobbying are: “Dignity Law”, sponsored by the Republican María Elvira Salazar and the Democrat Verónica Escobar. The “Bipartisan Border Solutions Act,” promoted by Texas Republican Senator John Coryn and Arizona Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema.
Both propose the transition from TPS, “dreamers”, political asylum and irregular entries, to permanent residence processes and from there, if they qualify, to US citizenship. The third proposal is the “Menéndez Plan” promoted by the senator from Nueva Bob Menendez sweater.
