Temporary Protective Status Supporters Await Imminent Court Ruling Outside Pasadena Federal Courthouse

With a court decision looming, dozens of Temporary Protective Status (TPS) residents gathered Monday at the U.S. Court of Appeals in Pasadena to await the 9th Circuit ruling in a federal class-action lawsuit.

Nearly half a million people would be impacted by the ruling in the cases of Ramos v. Nielsen and Bhattarai v. DHS, the two class-action lawsuits that blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to deport TPS communities from six countries: El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua and Sudan.

“After the DACA decision, we know that this is really the defining moment for immigrants in this country,” said David Huerta, SEIU-USWW president. “With the decision that the courts made in DACA, we anticipate and hope that a positive decision will be coming soon.”

DACA recipient Oscar Gonzalez said outside the courthouse, “Our family has benefited greatly from TPS. We’ve been able to have a lot of opportunities that a lot of undocmented people might not have. But we have to keep on fighting. We can’t live with the uncertainty of having to reapply every 18 months.

“We want to fight for that residency, and that pathway to citizenship,” he said. “We’ve given a lot, we work and we pay taxes, and we will keep fighting for citizenship, because that is what we deserve.”

The plaintiffs in Ramos v. Nielsen are represented by the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, NDLON and the law firm of Sidley Austin LLP. Asian Americans Advancing Justice is also representing plaintiffs in the related case of Bhattarai v. DHS.  The plaintiffs in both class-action lawsuits are members of the National TPS Alliance, CARECEN-Los Angeles, African Communities Together, Working Families United, UNITE-HERE, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, Adhikaar and Haitian Bridge Alliance.