Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
The appointment of Joe Biden as President of the United States raises the hope of a change of course in the harsh immigration policy to the Northern Triangle region of Central America and with it the possibility of regularization of more than a million Hondurans living and working in the American Union.
This hope is fueled by the election promise of the new White House tenant, who pledged to send Congress a proposal for comprehensive immigration reform in the first a hundred days of his reign.
This commitment gained momentum after Vice President-elect Kamala Harris reiterated last week that a reform proposal is under preparation to pave the way for residency and citizenship for millions of undocumented migrants living in the United States.
The Biden administration will focus on shortening the waiting times to obtain citizenship from 13 to eight years, by granting automatic green cards to undocumented immigrants protected by the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and the Deferred Action Program for arrivals of children. (Daca) and appoint immigration judges to reduce delays in court hearings, Harris said.
According to Honduras Department of State, USA. There are 15,490 Hondurans living under Dhaka and 42,407 under TPS, not counting the thousands of undocumented compatriots. It is estimated that the Honduran community in that country numbers more than a million people.
Know the region
Lisandro Rosales, Honduras’ Minister of Foreign Relations, told LA PRENSA that Biden knows the region, the difficulties and challenges we face and that he has no doubts that he will put the region’s migration issue on his work agenda.
“We have worked with him in the past on this issue of irregular migration and I believe he will support actions that allow regular and orderly migration within the legal sphere. There are many factors that influence this and he knows them very well. I am sure that your work team and it will be part of their agenda, ”he said.
Rosales hid his optimism about the possibility that thousands of Hondurans protected by TPS and Dhaka will finally achieve immigration regularization in the Biden government.
“In the case of those currently within TPS and Dhaka, we have hope, based on the promises made by President Biden’s government team, Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris, who announced that in the first 100 days of the administration, they will be sending a bill to Congress to, as she called it, “ correct ” the mistakes made on the immigration issue, after recognizing the high degree of discrimination and separation of families, ”said
He stressed that the State Department is working hard on this issue and one of the important actions taken late last year was to formally apply for a new TPS and this year, immediately after the new administration takes over, the relevant steps are continued.
“I know the solidarity in the United States and the traditional cooperative relationships between the two countries will enable our fellow countrymen who have been in the United States for several years and who contribute to the economy of that country through their work, even paying taxes according to what they receive for their work, have a chance to avoid the fear of thinking they will be expelled ”.
In this context, Rosales estimated that it is feasible to realize a new TPS for fellow countrymen arriving in the United States before hurricanes Eta and Iota, taking into account the announcements of the newly elected authorities and that this was part of their campaign strategy and they have now repeated it after their election.
“But we must always remember that it is a sovereign decision of the United States, we are making the request on the basis of good relations and mutual cooperation agreements, but it is the power of the United States to determine its immigration policy,” said the head of the United States. diplomacy. Honduran.
High expectations
Juan Flores, president of the 15 de Septiembre Foundation based in Florida, said Biden’s arrival as president has raised enormous expectations in the Hispanic community, especially among Hondurans living in that country.
“Hopes are high not just for the Honduran community but for the entire migrant community of this country as they have offered immigration reform and the TPS can be given if the procedures go well as the internal secretary has resigned. of security who was the one who had to sign this request from the TPS ”, he stated.
Flores reported that the organizations are doing the same in Washington to promote TPS and see if a new request is made or if the request made is validated.
“Another aspect is that there is a lot of hope not only for the migrant community but also for the peoples of the region, as they will act decisively to strengthen democracy and fight corruption that it affects our nations, ”he added.
The Honduran leader noted that there is a new rhetoric about the migrant community, very different from the rhetoric that has prevailed in Donald Trump’s four-year administration, when Hondurans were hit hardest by the harsh policy of keeping children at the border. to keep. , the separation of families and the rejection of asylum applications.
“Hondurans asking for help were practically rejected and are still in tents in Mexico, adding to the hatred of the migrant community and the weakest,” he said.
Pause
For now, the Honduran community is breathing relief after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the expansion of TPS last December to beneficiaries from El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua and Sudan.
The termination will be automatically extended until October 4, 2021, including work permits and all documentation related to TPS.
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In 100 days, Biden will dedicate himself to cleaning up the legacy of anti-migrants The first 100 days of President Joe Biden’s administration will be the key to cleaning up Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant legacy and taking steps for comprehensive immigration reform, according to immigration analyst and expert Ricardo Puerta. “The first hundred days are to clean up Trump’s legacy, there is nothing positive there, everything is negative in the sense that everything Trump has done leaves it as an anti-immigrant legacy to be removed and then come the proactive ones. measures. The immediate thing is to regularize all those who are illegal in the United States or whose permission needs to be renewed, there are the Tepesians, the dreamers and the 12 million undocumented migrants out there, ”he said. Puerta clarified that this does not mean that Biden will open the borders until they are like a Swiss cheese for all those affected by hurricanes Eta and Iota to enter, but rather to work on the regularization or normalization of those already in the United States is under a status like TPS and Daca. “The issue of illegal safe orderly migration will come to me in the first year of the government, once Trump’s legacy has been cleaned up and the people already inside have already been normalized in some way,” he said. The expert on immigration issues believed that the fact that Biden has a majority in Congress and the Senate facilitated the ability to normalize the situation of more than 10 million undocumented immigrants. Biden pledged in his political campaign to send an immigration reform initiative to shelter thousands of illegal immigrants in the United States in the first 100 days. |