Creating irregular immigration status with the stroke of a pen to feed the deportation agenda harms local communities, individuals and families

Alianza Americas Condemns the Abrupt and Unjustified Premature Termination of Regular Status for those Paroled into the U.S.

The Trump administration announced that the 985,000 people who entered the United States with parole or travel permits using the CPB One application are now in irregular status, and their work permits are cancelled, except for Afghan and Ukrainian nationals. The administration is emailing impacted individuals and urging them to leave the country. The communication includes the threat of fines and imprisonment for those that remain in the country without status.

The parole or travel permit programs demonstrated that creating avenues for safe, orderly, and regular migration is possible. “People who entered with the CBP One application followed a legal process, they trusted the system and are now betrayed by a persecution policy,” stated Dulce Guzmán, Executive Director of Alianza Americas. Now, this administration is stripping them of that status and threatening to deport them, which demonstrates its intent to persecute foreign nationals. The individuals who entered via these programs not only abided by the law but also revitalized communities in the U.S., including local economies, as well as society and culture.

The Trump administration’s decision is not only unjust, it also exposes a discriminatory agenda: “The Trump administration’s problem with those who entered with the CBP One application is that they come from Latin America or the global south, neither of which meet the administration’s white supremacist agenda. This contradicts the idea of the Nation under which this country was founded. This is not the United States of America. The Trump administration creates immigration irregularity and then seeks to benefit politically from it. The government has the information to identify and deport people who have not availed themselves of another form of protection or relief. With these actions, all of us in the United States lose. This is not an America First foreign policy, but a policy that neglects to address the real needs of its citizens and leaves humanity behind. This is persecution against foreigners, especially the most vulnerable. This does not make America great. It makes America small,” added Guzmán.

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Alianza Americas is the premier transnational advocacy network of Latin American migrant-led organizations working in the United States, across the Americas, and globally to create an inclusive, equitable and sustainable way of life for communities across North, Central and South America.