The Twin Cities Liberian community’s push to salvage a deportation reprieve program for Liberia natives came up short as the Trump administration announced Tuesday it will end the program in 12 months.
Deferred Enforced Departure, DED, has offered work permits and deportation protections since 2007, when it replaced a similar temporary reprieve program put in place during Liberia’s brutal civil war in the 1990s. The administration for the first time reported Tuesday that about 840 people nationally now have work permits through the program; that suggested the cancellation’s impact might be more limited than feared by local Liberian leaders, some of whom disputed the estimate.
Liberians in the metro, which hosts one of the largest West African enclaves in North America, mounted an active lobbying push to save the program, slated to expire at the end of next March. They argued its cancellation would deal a blow not only to numerous longtime residents but also to local nursing homes and other care facilities, where many Liberians work. Eight of the 10 members of Minnesota’s congressional delegation signed a letter to President Donald Trump urging him to extend the program.
But in a Tuesday memorandum, Trump said it was time to wrap up DED after a yearlong “orderly transition” period during which recipients can explore alternative routes to stay or prepare to leave by March 31, 2019.
[...] Minnesota lawmakers issued statements pledging to work on passing the Liberian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act in the U.S. House and Senate — legislation that would open a path to citizenship for DED recipients and others.
Rep. Keith Ellison, who has reintroduced that legislation since 2011, criticized the decision, calling DED recipients “long-standing contributors to our country.” Sen. Amy Klobuchar noted another option would be to get the administration to reverse its decision.
“The additional year gives me and my colleagues on both sides of the aisle more time to work toward a permanent solution,” Rep. Erik Paulsen said, “and it give us more time to raise awareness and educate others about what our Liberian community means to Minnesota.”
[link in original, italics emphasis added]
Okay, Paulsen, start that education process on woodenheads Emmer and Lewis. They are the two absent in that "eight of the ten" sentence put in italics in that Strib quote.
Paulsen of course is a Republican member of Congress as is Emmer and Lewis who on this issue, unlike Paulsen, fawn and bow to the Trump deportation mandate. In contrast to that pair, Paulsen has independently posted:
03/14/18
Washington, D.C.– Congressman Erik Paulsen (MN-03) today joined Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and other members of the Minnesota delegation to urge the President to extend Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) protections for Liberians, currently scheduled to expire at the end of March.
“Our state of Minnesota has one of the largest Liberian populations in the country. Many of them have been in our state for decades, and they are an important part of our communities, where they serve as business owners, teachers, and health care workers. It is for this reason that we ask you to extend the DED protections for Liberians now in effect before they expire at the end of this month,”the lawmakers wrote.
The lawmakers’ letter was also signed by Senator Tina Smith (D-Minn.) and Congressmen Keith Ellison (MN-05), Tim Walz (MN-01), Rick Nolan (MN-08), Betty McCollum (MN-04), and Collin Peterson (MN-07). The full text of the letter is below.
Congressman Paulsen also met today with leaders of Minnesota’s Liberian community at his Washington, D.C. office to reiterate his support for Minnesota’s Liberian population. A brief video of the meeting can be viewed here.
[...] “The lives and wellbeing of the Liberians living in our own community are at stake, and this is too important to let politics get in the way,”Congressman Paulsen said. “I’m grateful to the representatives of our Liberian community for coming to Washington to make their case directly to my fellow lawmakers and I will continue working across the aisle in urging the Administration to take action.”
Paulsen is also a co-sponsor of the bipartisan Liberian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of 2018, which enables Liberians who have been living here temporarily to apply for permanent residency.
Here is the full text of the lawmakers’ letter:
Dear President Trump:
We write to ask that you extend Deferred Enforcement Departure (DED) status for Liberians, which is now scheduled to expire on March 31, 2018.
Liberians have had protected status in the United States since President George H.W. Bush first approved Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Liberia in response to its civil war in 1991. That status was extended under presidents from both parties until it expired in 2007, at which time President George W. Bush granted DED protections to Liberians. Since 2007, DED has been extended six times, allowing recipients to remain in the United States legally and receive work authorization.
Our state of Minnesota has one of the largest Liberian populations in the country. Many of them have been in our state for decades, and they are an important part of our communities, where they serve as business owners, teachers, and health care workers. It is for this reason that we ask you to extend the DED protections for Liberians now in effect before they expire at the end of this month.
Thank you for your prompt consideration of this important issue.
[italics added, bolding in original omitted] An earlier Crabgrass notice was posted in parallel to the earlier Strib coverage linked to in the Strib quote which opened this post. Content from that earlier Crabgrass post need not be repeated here. Briefly: If you would be disinclined on a 24/7 regular basis to help grandma in the nursing home from bed to the toilet when she is alert but physically incapable of such transit without help, and then perhaps have to handle and dispose of soiled Depends, then do not disrespect Liberian workers who accept exactly such nursing home necessary support work, as well as providing in other instances accredited nurses at elderly housing specializing in elderly healthcare delivery. Absent the Liberian healthcare labor force, there would be a troubling shortage of elderly needs being met.
BOTTOM LINE: In my heart, given the Liberian presence in elderly care, I'd rather see Emmer and Jason Lewis deported.
But can we find cause for any such remedy, besides their hatred for immigrants exceeding giving a damn about elderly care needs and how such needs in practice actually are met? Such a position is cause to vote them out, certainly that, but the threat of deportation in a moral justice sense is something each should somehow feel, on a personal level where humane thought is present among all the other Congressional Delegation who signed onto wanting relief for the Liberian community.
Emmer and Lewis please sign on with colleagues to help resolve the Liberian dilemma, or at least neutrally stand out that way. Never mind the lack of real and meaningful town hall presence in district being another cause for disdain toward the pair; marching in lockstep with Trump/Pence immigrant hate should have its practical as well as moral limits, even for these gentlemen whose lack of care for in district voter contact runs in parallel with their lack of care for the plight of their State's Liberian population.
Emmer has, in district, the fairly new, roomy and well laid-out VOA facility, The Homestead at Anoka, which the truant rep. should take time to visit and talk with senior staff about the Liberian place in existing senior care, and how already costly access to care might be heightened without willing Liberian workers to "participate in America" and hold needed, helpful jobs many would decline to do.
His heart might, were he to do so, become less hardened.