Immigration temporary protective status-Salvadoran debate

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

An estimated 10,000 D.C. residents of Salvadoran descent are likely becoming news watchers now that the State Department has warned Americans against traveling to the Central American country and the Trump administration has told them they have until September 2019 to get their immigration papers in order or be shipped out.

Neither warning is welcoming to Salvadorans. From 1980 to 1992, their homeland was torn asunder by a civil war that pitted the government against guerrillas against civilians, leaving 75,000 people dead, including the massacre of six Jesuit priests who had sought peace.

Then, Mother Nature took a toll, striking the nation with back-to-back earthquakes in 2001, claiming 1,100 lives and leaving more than 1 million homeless.

Many of the frightened, injured and downtrodden came to America and, as part of humanitarian relief efforts, were given temporary protective status (TPS).

Now comes the debate. Why should people who have known no other home but America be forced to leave? Why should immigrants, albeit immigrants as temporary guests, be forced to leave if they are law abiders, pay their taxes and earn their keep?

Laws aren’t always as black-and-white as the check boxes on the endless government forms we have to fill out on a regular basis. Driver’s licenses fit the bill. Issued by the states, driver’s permits list expiration dates, and it’s drivers’ responsibility to renew that license before it expires.

Other government programs pretty much operate on the same premise, including fishing and hunting permits, food stamps and SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) certifications, parking meters, student financial aid. You even have to re-enlist in the military and cannot assume that because you’re still using a government housing voucher that you can automatically stay in the apartment you’ve lived in for three years.

And as most parents know, children must be re-enrolled in school every year.

Immigration is as simple as it is complex.

You come to America, ask to work, study, visit, live or play — and the government respectfully responds.

Many of the requests, of course, are outright lies, and far too many of the requesters (and their lawbreaking enablers) could give a crap about America’s laws.

They lie to get in by giving false names, exploiting stolen identities and claiming women not their wives as relatives. They swear in family court that a man they haven’t seen in a dozen years or so is their uncle, and their “uncle” claims them so they can stay in the United States and claim Maryland as their residence (with benefits).

Some estimates put the number of Salvadorans living in D.C. at 10,000. The city does not know for certain, however.

Why is that, you might wonder? Because the nation’s capital is no newcomer to the “sanctuary city” movement. It’s because a black D.C. cop shot a Salvadoran on Cinco de Mayo in 1991, riots and unrest broke out for three days, and, in the aftermath, city officials promised to not ask the immigration status of Hispanics if the query intersected with law enforcement.

So, here yet again, it’s up to the federal government to distinguish the truth from the lies, and that task won’t be easy.

Some law enforcers are battling gangs, drugs and violence tougher than El Salvador, where native men and women are being killed and raped so much that El Salvador often is characterized as the murder capital of the world. It’s worth noting, too, that the notorious MS-13 gang is of Salvadoran descent.

Small wonder that Salvadorans living in America do not want to return and do not want to raise their families there, either.

We’ll have to wait, of course, to see if the courts will allow the Trump administration to follow thru on its September 2019 deadline.

One thing, however, is certain: Protective status for most Americans is not a relative term, and it is permanent — and language has nothing to do with it.

TPS is something entirely different, and temporary means temporary.

That also is very clear.

• Deborah Simmons can be contacted at dsimmons@washingtontimes.com.