Five supervisors stood with labor organizers and immigrants Tuesday afternoon to condemn the Trump administration’s move to end Temporary Protected Status for over 60,000 immigrants from Honduras, Nicaragua and Nepal.
“The termination of any of the current countries that receive Temporary Protected Status directly affects our immigrant communities in San Francisco,” said District 9 Supervisor Jackie Fielder.
Fielder introduced a non-binding resolution urging the California federal delegation to urge Congress to establish a permanent pathway for Temporary Protected Status holders.
The Trump Administration’s order has been upheld by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and, on Sept. 8, the immigrants will lose their protected status. This includes their ability to remain in the United States or work here legally.
By Fielder’s side at the steps of City Hall were Supervisors Myrna Melgar, Chyanne Chen, Shamann Walton and Bilal Mahmood. The resolution itself passed with unanimously on Tuesday afternoon at the Board of Supervisors meeting.
“As your city attorney, I can share with you that our office is doing everything we can to stand with our immigrants, because we know how far our country has fallen from the promise of the Statue of Liberty,” said City Attorney David Chiu.
Chiu’s office filed amicus briefs on July 29 highlighting the “deep integration into American society” of the city’s immigrant population, and warning that ending their status would “cause irreparable harm” to communities.
“We have to stand together,” Chiu said to the 30 or so people who attended the rally.
Created by the U.S. Congress as part of the Immigration Act of 1990, “Temporary Protected Status” protects nationals from countries undergoing civil wars or environmental disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, drought and epidemics from deportation.
A Temporary Protected Status designation has to be renewed every six, 12 or 18 months, depending on the arrangement.
Kimberly, a city worker attending the rally, said that this had been true for her mother, Janeth. She arrived in Los Angeles at age 23, after being displaced from Honduras by Hurricane Mitch.
Violence, disease and infrastructural damage caused by the hurricane made returning to Honduras dangerous enough that the U.S. kept renewing TPS status for Hondurans.
Like many other TPS holders, the only way for her mother to stay in the United States was to renew her TPS status every two years, Kimberly said. Progressing from TPS status to a green card or citizenship is difficult, and her mother wasn’t able to obtain either.
“The only thing that they give you with TPS is work authorization and deportation protection, and to be legally present here,” Kimberly said. “So it literally is just for labor.” Her mother spent the last two decades working as a nurse at Kaiser.
But Sept. 8, 2025, will be her last day. Her mother is not willingly retiring, Kimberly said. Her employment is terminated because of the Aug. 20 court ruling that allowed the Trump administration to proceed with terminating TPS status for several countries, including Honduras.
NPR reported that the decision will impact some 51,000 residents from Honduras and 3,000 from Nicaragua, whose TPS designations are set to expire on Sept. 8, as well as some 7,000 people from Nepal whose designations will expire on Aug. 5. Once their designations expire, these people will face deportation.
Kimberly said that her mother has been working seven days straight ahead of her layoff on Sept. 8. “She needs all the money that she can get because she has a mortgage,” Kimberly said.
Her mother has no idea if she can get her money from her retirement account or her pension in any way if she’s in Honduras. She doesn’t know if she will have a chance to be called into work on Monday, Sept. 8. She doesn’t have any family in Honduras anymore.
“Mentally, she’s not okay,” Kimberly said. “Physically, she’s still showing up.”
Thanks for reporting
I guess it is much easier to make political statements that have no weight then make policy that can help improve the life of all
For example,
Why is this city still handing out drug pipes for free?
Why is this city handing out alcohol to drunks?
Why are sidewalks on Polk and Tenderloin still confinement zones where drug gangs sell illegal lethal poisons and sidewalks are blocked 24/7?
The show is getting really old in this town .
Politicians just warm their chairs here and cause harm .
Very sad
“30 or so people who attended the rally.”
Clearly broad and vigorous public support for amicus briefs and nonbinding resolutions.
I just realized that this is the rally that I bicycled past yesterday morning. It way failed the Spinal Tap Test, as there were several more times as many people on the steps as there were people rallying in support of them.
Odds are that the immigration nonprofits used this as a photo op to prove that their grant money is being spent as required, on the purely performative designed to provide the illusion of action, to use in future pitches for grants and contracts.
Peter Gibbons must have forgotten to use the updated cover sheet again.
Isn’t this just symbolic? The city can’t do anything about the TPS terminations right?
Non binding resolution is obviously useless, as the name states.
What can you do that actually has effect?
Where is the mayor?
We can all see who the drug dealers are that think they run the city. It’s past time to stop protecting them.
look for other circuit in other states to stop the decition of the circuit 9 put lawsuit in different states different courts