Rubén Rosario: Next week, they may have to leave behind their kids and the place they love
She, and many others like her, should have stayed locked in a closet without human interaction or grabbed a seat at the airport terminal upon arriving and not left it until conditions in her country stabilized and she was sent back. She should not have been allowed to work, plant any roots or fall in love under the "Temporary Protected Status" law that granted her and hundreds of other desperate Liberians entry.
But the reprieve gave her temporary permission and legal protection to live and work here throughout the years and only that -- no pathway to permanent residency, no public assistance, let alone citizenship.
So, given that she is human, Sonie went ahead and lived her life. She fell in love. She found a job cleaning rooms and toilets at
With the meager income she gets, Sonie somehow squirrels away a few bucks every month to send back to her parents and two siblings.
"Things are still bad over there, lots of crime, no one is working, so it helps for them to be able to buy food and help pay for hospital bills," the 37-year-old
Come next Sunday, Sonie will either be forced to self-deport to
The TPS law was passed in 1990 to provide temporary relocation to people whose home countries were ravaged by war or natural disasters. Deadlines were routinely extended over the years under both Republican and Democratic administrations. That ended when President
The elimination of TPS for
But the affected Liberians living in
Nevertheless, a federal lawsuit was filed in
An exodus of such workers "will be significant,"
She noted that Care Providers of
"We value these workers; they've been trained and educated for our positions and they've been committed to our organizations for years," Mattson added. "We simply cannot afford to lose their talent. As a profession we are already facing critical workforce shortages, to potentially have 6 to 25 percent of our workforce leave us would be devastating," she added. "Not only do I feel that it's both morally and ethically wrong to force these people to leave a place they call home, it makes no business or economic sense whatsoever."
She has worked as a nursing assistant for the past 15 years. Her husband, Lusienie, works as a custodian. Her son, L.Nyensuathee, 24, diagnosed here in
All three face deportation if next week's deadline goes into effect. If her son goes back, "he will surely die," she said, because of a lack of medical care resources.
Like Sonie, she has heard
Wreh-Fofana hopes against hope that with the stroke of a pen, Trump may decide to give them another and perhaps more permanent reprieve before next week's deadline.
"We feel like we are home in America," she said. "I have faith that God is going to make a way here out of nowhere."
Trump, do the right thing.
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