Baltimore activists call on President Joe Biden to extend protected status to immigrants

BALTIMORE — Immigrants’ rights activists rallied outside of Baltimore City Hall Thursday morning, calling on President Joe Biden to extend temporary protected status for people who fled their home nations to escape political persecution and destruction caused by natural disasters.

“Baltimore is a welcoming city,” said Baltimore City Councilwoman Odette Ramos, a Democrat representing District 14. “We made that official many years ago to say that we want, we need, we have to have immigrant community in our city and we welcome everyone.”

Ramos and Catalina Rodriguez-Lima of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs joined advocates from CASA of Maryland and immigrants and their families to ask Biden to extend temporary protected status to people fleeing Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Cameroon and Nepal, and to grant the status to Guatemala.

Temporary protected status is a designation granted by the Department of Homeland Security to immigrants from countries that are not safe to return to due to civil war or natural disasters. Once a person has been given temporary protected status, they are not able to be removed from the United States by their country of origin, are able to work once they obtain employment authorization documentation and are ineligible to be detained by the Department of Homeland Security based on their immigration status.

Ramos said Thursday that she intends to introduce a resolution later this month calling on Biden to extend temporary protection status for “people from Central America, Nepal, Cameroon and others that need that status.”

“We as a council think that this is very important, and I’m honored to be able to introduce this resolution calling on the president to do the right thing,” she said.

There are currently 16 countries whose citizens have been granted temporary protected status by the Department of Homeland Security.

Cameroonians will lose their temporary protected status in December. El Salvador will lose its protected status in Spring 2025. Honduras, Nepal and Nicaragua will lose theirs that summer. Guatemala does not have temporary protected status.

“Please don’t allow us to get deported to our deaths,” said Denis Taponju, who fled Cameroon to come to the United States after he was arrested and accused of treason for advocating for the rights of English-speaking Cameroonians.

Taponju said was “detained for days” and was almost killed by the Cameroonian military.

“[Temporary Protected Status] for Cameroon comes as a savior for thousands of Cameroonians, and to me and my family, in particular,” he said.

Olga Urbina left Nicaragua with her husband and three children because a group of people called the “colonos” were killing people in her area and taking their land. She said her family lives in fear of being deported, returning to Nicaragua and being killed.

“My family and I had to leave behind our lives, our home and my father there alone to save ourselves,” Urbina said through a translator. “In my country, there is no freedom.”