The White House is Peddling a Fantasy

The Trump Administration is ending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for an estimated 200,000 immigrants from El Salvador. The President has previously terminated protections from deportation and work documents for those with DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) and others with TPS, including Haitians and Nicaraguans. More than a million immigrants who live and work under the protection of American laws will lose that protection in the coming months.

Once again, Donald Trump is turning immigrants who have lived and worked within the laws of the U.S. for a generation into undocumented immigrants. Hostile to immigrants and immigration, the White House has added hundreds of thousands of Salvadorans to the ranks of Dreamers, Haitians, Nicaraguans and others who have lost discretionary protection from deportation.

Turning immigrants living and working legally in the U.S. into undocumented immigrants defies logic, even for this President.

And like the DACA holders, will Donald Trump and Stephen Miller demand ransom to allow them to live and work here? For Dreamers, it’s cuts to legal immigration, increases in deportations and $18 billion for a border wall. What will Trump and Miller extract from the American people to protect TPS holders? A moat with alligators?

The White House is peddling a fantasy where hundreds of thousands of people who have established their lives, families, and businesses in the U.S. for decades will leave or can be rounded up and deported. Turning immigrants living and working legally in the U.S. into undocumented immigrants defies logic, even for this President.

Rep. Luis V. Gutiérrez is a Member of the Judiciary Committee and the Chair of the Immigration Task Force of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

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