This week Trump’s administration may revoke temporary protected status for thousands and send them back to dangerous conditions

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Donald Trump’s administration this week will decide whether to allow 6,900 Syrians to continue being protected from deportation – or force them to return to a country ravaged by starvation, airstrikes, barrel bombs and chemical weapon attacks.



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These Syrians have temporary protected status (TPS), which allows people to stay and work in the US because of dangerous conditions in their home country. The US government warned this month that no place in Syria is safe from violence, but humanitarian groups are concerned the administration’s anti-immigrant policies – specifically towards people from Muslim-majority countries – suggest it will not renew TPS.

Three days before the 30 January deadline to decide, the lives of people like Michael Shakur, a 25-year-old who fled Aleppo in October 2014, hang in the balance.

Shakur traveled to the US legally in January 2015 and eventually qualified for TPS. He is alone in Brooklyn, where he has difficulty finding work because potential employers know his TPS could expire. He has applied for asylum, but the processing system is backlogged.

Despite the challenges, Shakur said he is grateful “every second” for TPS. “This is a chance at life, a chance to escape the pointless misery that was in Syria,” Shakur told the Guardian.

He said life was impossible in Syria when he left.

“It was almost like being in a terrible car accident, but all the time,” Shakur said. “You get out of your house house not knowing if you’re coming back – bombs, mortar shells, no electricity, no running water – just a brutal situation to live in.”

Last week, the secretary of state Rex Tillerson warned that Bashar al-Assad’s regime continues to attack Syrians. “The catastrophic state of affairs is directly related to the continued lack of security and legitimate governance in Syria itself,” Tillerson said.

Humanitarian and Syrian advocacy groups have met with the administration to discuss the need for TPS, but are not confident the homeland security department will renew the program.

The Trump administration has already cancelled TPS for four other countries in the past four months.

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“We know [White House aide] Stephen Miller is hell-bent on getting rid of as many non-European immigrants from our country as possible, so we are very worried,” said Wa’el Alzayat, CEO of Emgage, a national non-profit organization that seeks to increase the political participation of Muslim, Arab and south Asian Americans.

Alzayat, who worked on the Obama administration’s Syria file during his 10 years at the US state department, said the renewal of TPS is a “life or death” situation.

He said: “Our own intelligence and diplomatic assessment is that they would be under immediate threat if they return, therefore they should be able to stay longer.”

Alzayat said many in the state department are pushing for renewal, but ultimately the decision is in the hands of the homeland security department and White House. “It would be a huge, huge slap in the face of Tillerson and an indictment of how weak the state department has become if these people are returned,” he said.

Advocates favor a re-designation of TPS for Syrians, which would allow an additional 2,000 people to be protected by it. If it is only renewed, the protection will continue to apply exclusively to those who already qualified for TPS. If it is terminated, the protection will end in March.

“I don’t see how the president has any humane choice but to extend it,” Sander Levin, a Democratic congressman from Michigan, told the Guardian.

Michigan has the second highest Syrian refugee population in the US.

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“They left because of the horrendous conditions and there is no indication they would return to different conditions,” Levin said. “There is still a lot of bombing going on. All of these people were vetted carefully.”

More than 500,000 Syrians have been killed since the war broke out in 2011. At least 5.5 million Syrians have been forced to flee the country, and at least 6.1 million have been internally displaced.

Aid groups including Human Rights Watch (HRW) have warned that terminating the program could encourage other countries to cancel protections for Syrians. “With mounting pressure on Syrian refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey to return, terminating the protection in the United States would send a dangerous signal that could affect far larger numbers of Syrians,” said HRW’s Washington director, Sarah Margon.

The Syrian regime has also said people who have left the country are members of the opposition or sympathetic to the opposition.

Bader Ghashim, another Syrian TPS recipient from Aleppo, said he and his family have been personally targeted by the regime and would be persecuted if he had to go back to Syria.

“I don’t know how it’s going to look when I go back,” Ghashim said. “My house has been taken. My factory has been taken.”

He left Syria for the US in February 2012 as a visitor, with no intention to stay. TPS went into effect the next month and has kept him safe ever since. The 36-year-old applied for asylum three years ago, but was denied. Without TPS, Ghashim wouldn’t know what to do. “For the time being, I have no place to go to.”