Chapel Hill Town Council unanimously voted to uphold the Temporary Protected Status of undocumented immigrants and refugees. TPS provides employment authorization status to those who would be unable to work without legal documentation.
The Trump administration has expressed consideration for not renewing the protected status for those who are undocumented, thereby posing the threat of possible deportation for hundreds of thousands of people.
Chapel Hill Town Council member Jessica Anderson said she believes the town will come together to stand behind those affected by the current administration.
“It is shameful to use people in physical danger as political pawns in this ongoing fear-mongering effort by the Trump Administration,” she said.
Those who qualify under TPS are fleeing wars, natural disasters, environmental issues and crime. The resolution protects those whose lives would be threatened if they returned home.
Temporary protected status had recently been extended to those from Syria and Haiti. Previously, TPS protected those from El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Sudan and Somalia.
The Chapel Hill Resolution states “an end to TPS would harm the economy of North Carolina and the Chapel Hill community by throwing the lives of long-term residents of our Town and State into chaos, separating parents from their children, and damaging the local economy.”
The town council calls on the Department of Homeland Security to renew TPS. They also sent a copy of the signed resolution to Senators Richard Burr and Thom Tillis and Representative David Price to signify Chapel Hill’s stance.
“We need to elect better representation in 2018 for so many reasons, this being one of them,” Anderson said.
