Northern Nevada activists, immigrants blast Trump blow to TPS immigration protections

Backlash continued Wednesday against the Trump Administration’s plan to end temporary legal immigration status for 200,000 Salvadorans now living in the U.S.

Northern Nevada labor and religious leaders joined progressive political organizers and immigrants to decry the plan at a press conference, telling reporters the move was “immoral” and a threat to the state’s economy.

“This will cause extreme suffering for many individuals from El Salvador,” said Eloy Jara, president of Laborers Union Local 169. “These are people that are deeply invested in our communities.

“We need to call on Congress to take action and immediately pass a solution to this problem.”

Salvadorans who currently have Temporary Protected Status (TPS) must return to their homeland by September 2019 or become undocumented immigrants under an order unveiled Monday by U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Mario Delarosa — an organizer with the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, the Democrat-aligned group that hosted Wednesday’s press conference — estimated the move would affect some 1,000 Northern Nevadans.

That tally includes Cristina Racinos, a housekeeper and 18-year Reno resident.

“There is a lot of violence in our country,” said Racinos. “The gangs may think that because we were in the U.S., we have money.

“And that's why if we return to our country, we’re in danger of losing our lives.”

All four Democratic members of Nevada’s Congressional delegation issued statements condemning Monday’s roll back of immigration protections. U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., said the shift would “tear families apart” and could expose thousands of immigrants to potentially dangerous and life-threatening situations.

Their Republican counterparts, U.S. Sen. Dean Heller and U.S. Rep. Mark Amodei, were more cautious.

Heller characterized the plan as “yet another reason why Congress needs to come together on a solution that prioritizes border security.” Amodei declined to comment in detail, explaining in a Monday statement that he was still studying the issue. A spokeswoman declined to add to that statement Wednesday afternoon.

Bob Fulkerson, state director of the Progressive Leadership Alliance, urged supporters of existing immigration protections to take their fight beyond state political leaders.

“Let's save our outrage on this against Trump and let's direct it toward some of the lesser-known accomplices right here in our town,” Fulkerson said. “The owners, the CEO’s, the shareholders of these (Northern Nevada) businesses and corporations owe their fortunes to immigrant workers of Nevada.

“Instead of standing up for workers, what are they doing? Not only are they not standing up for them, they're actually supporting politicians like Trump that are making all this happen.”

Salvadorans were first granted temporary protective status in 2001, after a pair of devastating earthquakes that killed nearly 1,000 people and destroyed more than 100,000 homes in the Central American country.

Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama extended those protections for El Salvador every 18 months. Their administrations felt the country had not fully recovered from the quakes and also had raging violence from drug cartels that made it impossible for those displaced by the quakes to safely return home.