The Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project in Maine said in a statement on Tuesday that the Supreme Court’s decision on birthright citizenship “got it right,” but that its ruling last week, affirming Trump’s power to remove temporary protected status for hundreds of thousands of people from Syria and Haiti, creates “grave risks of family separation.”
Read More"The administration’s attack on this fundamental right has caused tremendous harm and anxiety in our communities, as parents have lived with fear and uncertainty about their children’s citizenship, security, and future," said ILAP executive director Sue Roche. "While today’s decision affirms the rights of those vulnerable children, we know they still face grave risks of family separation with the Supreme Court’s Temporary Protected Status ruling and the administration’s ongoing mass deportation agenda."
Read MoreSue Roche, executive director of the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, said that the approximately 1.3 million people in the U.S. enrolled in the temporary protected status program include “at least hundreds of people in Maine. Many people have lived with TPS protection for years and decades, raising families, working essential jobs in our workforce, and becoming indispensable parts of our communities.”
Read MorePolicy director at the Immigrant Legal, Lisa Parisio, said a TPS is used by at least 700 people in Maine, including several hundred with Haitian and Syrian designations. "This decision paves the way to impact all of these folks here in Maine and all of their families and their workplaces," Parisio said.
Read MoreLisa Parisio, with the Portland-based Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, said revoking Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, is part of the administration's broader attack on legal immigration pathways.
"Going after people who have existing statuses like TPS holders and seeking to strip them of their protections so that they can increase the numbers of people that they are able to deport," Parisio said.
Read MoreBut the Portland-based Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project said it's seeing an uptick in ICE activity, particularly concentrated in the Lewiston-Auburn area, with agents often detaining people near their homes.
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