WASHINGTON — Catholic leaders were angered and disappointed by
the Trump administration's May 4 decision to end Temporary Protected Status,
popularly known as TPS, to more than 57,000 Hondurans living in the United
States.
Hondurans who arrived in the United States after their country
was devastated by Hurricane Mitch in 1998 now have until Jan. 5, 2020, to
return home.
"Anyone who has been to Honduras in recent months knows we
are sending innocent people back to one of the most chaotic and dangerous
places in the world," said Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, via
Twitter May 5. "We have clearly lost our moral compass."
The U.S. Department of State has a travel advisory for Honduras
on its website, saying "violent crime, such as homicide and armed robbery,
is common. Violent gang activity, such as extortion, violent street crime,
rape, and narcotics and human trafficking, is widespread. Local police and
emergency services lack the resources to respond effectively to serious
crime."
However, the Department of Homeland security in a statement does
not mention the violence and refers only to conditions related to Hurricane
Mitch, which brought a flow of migrants north.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen M. Nielsen said in a May 5
statement that the decision to end TPS for Honduras "was made after a
review of the environmental disaster-related conditions upon which the
country's original 1999 TPS designation was based and an assessment of whether
those originating conditions continue to exist, as required by statute."
Since 1999, those conditions "have notably improved,"
the statement continued.
Catholic groups and leaders, however, insist that other
conditions, including violence and economic troubles, make a return dangerous.
"The administration's decision to end TPS for Honduras is
untenable. Returning tens of thousands of people to a country with a staggering
unemployment rate, high rates of violence, and few available resources to
support them could quickly become a tipping point for communities," said
Conor Walsh, the country representative in Honduras for Catholic Relief
Services.
He said those who are forced to return will be separated from
family and could be targeted by gangs for extortion.
"This decision, as well as previous determinations made for
El Salvador and Haiti, will undermine ongoing efforts to address the root
causes of migration and violence, and in doing so, lead to more," he
added.
"Our government is out of sync with our values. Our
neighbors, friends and co-workers are constantly coming under assault from this
administration because they were born in another country. But isn't that why
the United States of America was founded? The soul of our nation is being
tested," said Lawrence Couch, director of the National Advocacy Center of
the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, in a May 4 statement.
Couch was part of a team that traveled to Honduras as part of an
Emergency Interfaith Delegation that accompanied Honduran human rights
defenders as they mobilized and demonstrated against the presidential election
in November. The election came under question when the vote count suddenly
stopped and the candidate that was losing subsequently emerged as the winner.
"Since the November election, Honduras has seen widespread
civil unrest and protests. Human rights and religious leaders have been
threatened and the media harassed. But most in the United States have not
noticed," Couch said. "Now we have 50,000 residents and their
families in the United States who are being forced back to this dangerous
regime."
Jeanne Atkinson, executive director of the Catholic Legal
Immigration Network, said the Trump administration attempted to paint a picture
that it had "no choice but to terminate TPS," suggesting that past
administrations that extended the protected status for Hondurans had not
properly applied the law.
"To the contrary, it is the Trump administration's action
that disregards the law and the intent of Congress in creating TPS in the first
place to safeguard human lives," she said.
Catholic Legal Immigration officials have been urging the Trump
administration to grant an 18-month extension of TPS to Hondurans based on the
continuing humanitarian crisis. The group notes that amid efforts to recover
from the hurricane and other natural disasters, Honduras has been plagued by a
housing deficit of 1.1 million homes, lack of access to safe drinking water
that affects 638,000 people and a food shortage that leaves 25 percent of the
country's children under age 5 chronically hungry.
Mercy Sister Patricia McDermott, president of the Sisters of
Mercy of the Americas, similarly was disappointed with the decision announced
May 4 by Nielsen, the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security.
"The termination of TPS for Honduran nationals is both
disgraceful and immoral," she said. "Many of these individuals have
been in the U.S. for 20 years, raising families and creating vibrant
communities. Forcing their return to a country that is wracked by endemic
violence and poverty will put their lives in danger, separate families, and
have devastating effects on communities both in Honduras and the United
States."