CIVIL RIGHTS AND IMMIGRANT JUSTICE GROUPS ANNOUNCE FEDERAL COURT CHALLENGE TO TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S TERMINATION OF TPS FOR HONDURANS
Today, in response to the Trump Administration’s statement that it is terminating humanitarian protection for Honduran immigrants by rescinding the country’s Temporary Protected Status (TPS), civil rights and immigrant justice organizations announced that they would immediately move to challenge the termination in federal court.
In a currently pending federal lawsuit filed in February 2018, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice is seeking to halt previously announced TPS terminations for Haiti and El Salvador. The suit was filed on behalf of Centro Presente, an immigrants’ rights organization, as well as individual TPS recipients.
The Lawyers’ Committee and Centro Presente announced today that they would immediately move to amend their lawsuit to challenge today’s termination of TPS for Honduras. They described the Trump Administration’s newest action as an escalation of the federal government’s hateful, harmful, and heinous actions targeting immigrants of color for discriminatory and disgraceful unconstitutional treatment. The groups noted that Hondurans make up a substantial and important part of our communities in Massachusetts, and called the Trump Administration’s announcement today a continuation of illegally discriminatory conduct.
“As the Trump Administration continues to terminate humanitarian protections to our immigrant communities, we are left with only one explanation for its actions: discrimination,” said Iván Espinoza-Madrigal, the Executive Director at the Lawyers’ Committee. “We will not stand for immigration policies that violate our Constitution, core American values, and fundamental human rights principles,” added Espinoza-Madrigal.
“Our communities continue to be rocked to the core with every new action by this racist administration,” said Patricia Montes, Executive Director of Centro Presente. “Honduras is not ready to receive and reintegrate immigrants who are being deported from the US and other countries like México. Every year one hundred thousand Hondurans leave their country due to the level of extreme violence they confront daily and additionally, this year, the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean declared that Honduras is the poorest country in Latin America displacing Haiti.”
The federal lawsuit, Centro Presente et al. v. Trump et al., is currently pending before Judge Denise Casper, in the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts.
Centro Presente is holding a rally on Monday, May 7th at 11 AM in the Massachusetts State House to protest the ongoing anti-immigrant actions of the Trump Administration.
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