Latest news with #TPS
Boston Globe
a day ago
- Business
- Boston Globe
Market Basket suspends dozens of employees in New Bedford following immigration audit
Immigration authorities ordered an I-9 audit of the store in 2023, but it was paused by the federal Department of Labor, Ventura said. In an I-9 audit, businesses turn over employees' Employment Eligibility Verification forms to investigators, who check for compliance, according to The Market Basket spokesperson said DHS investigated the employee's paperwork 'and recently found several had not been properly updated, leading to their suspensions.' Advertisement 'Market Basket looks forward to welcoming the employees back to work as soon as they update their paperwork,' the spokesperson said. A message to the Department of Homeland Security seeking information on the 2023 probe at Market Basket was not immediately returned Monday. A spokesperson for ICE did not respond to the Globe's questions Friday about the action, writing in an email, 'ICE cannot comment on ongoing investigations.' The suspensions were first reported by the Advertisement Store employees were asked to present their work authorization documents at a recent meeting with store management, Ventura said. The meeting came after workers observed ICE activity in Market Basket's parking lot, though agents were not seen entering the store, he said. Several employees lacking work permits have since been suspended indefinitely, he said. Ventura said many held valid permits when they were first hired, but those permits had since lapsed. It's unclear if any of the workers held Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, a legal status For the workers, many of whom Ventura said had worked at the store for over a decade, the situation is 'very difficult.' 'There are mothers that have three or four kids, single mothers,' he said in an interview conducted in Spanish. 'One mother [who was suspended], her husband was caught up in an immigration raid while working construction and was deported. Now she's in limbo ... It's a complete disaster." Jonathan Darling, a spokesperson for the City of New Bedford, did not comment directly on the suspensions at Market Basket, but said, 'With respect to the federal government's approach to the enforcement of immigration law, the Mayor [Jon Mitchell] has made clear that the focus should be on known criminals or others who pose public safety risks.' Since President Trump took office, promising An estimated Advertisement Many of the immigrant workers in New Bedford are originally from Central America, Ventura said, as well as other parts of Latin America and from Cape Verde. He added that immigrants are If work authorization crackdowns continue, it could spell danger not just for the immigrant community, but for entire city, Ventura said. 'There's a saying that goes, 'take away his water, and the fish dies,'' he said. 'Our concern is that if immigration officials start throwing I-9s at all the companies and agencies here, it will be a complete disaster here in New Bedford.' In 2007, New Bedford was the scene of the I-9 audits are not new, said Boston-based immigration attorney Matthew Maiona, but there has been an uptick since Trump took office. Also known as Such inspections are typically prompted by an outside complaint or an internal investigation, and the process begins when an employer is served with a While Mainoa was unfamiliar with the Market Basket case, he said the company was likely not knowingly bypassing the law, but was among the many employers nationwide caught up in the Trump adminstration's fast evolving immigration policies. Advertisement 'We have people working who maybe had employment authorization cards through temporary protected status, or through a pending asylum application or deferred action, or through one of the many programs … that are now being deemed no longer available,' Mainoa said. 'It puts an exceptional onus on the employers to keep up with all of this.' He noted that a 'I don't think it's getting any better anytime soon,' Mainoa said. 'It's only going to get worse from here.' Nick Stoico of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Shannon Larson can be reached at
First Post
a day ago
- Politics
- First Post
Trump To End Deportation Protection for Cameroonians, Afghans Firstpost Africa
Trump To End Deportation Protection for Cameroonians, Afghans | Firstpost Africa | N18G Trump To End Deportation Protection for Cameroonians, Afghans | Firstpost Africa | N18G The Trump administration has won a federal appeals court ruling allowing it to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for over 5,000 Cameroonians, despite ongoing conflict and humanitarian crises in the country. The government argues conditions have improved and TPS is meant to be temporary, while advocacy group CASA contends Cameroon remains unsafe and accuses the administration of racial bias and procedural violations. The ruling permits deportations to proceed, potentially affecting thousands with U.S.-born children or deep community ties. This decision follows broader efforts to wind down TPS for multiple nationalities as part of Trump's intensified crackdown on undocumented migration. See More
Politico
a day ago
- Health
- Politico
Trump immigration policy exacerbates health care workforce shortages
Beat Memo Health care providers are calling on the Trump administration to reverse changes to immigration policy that have compounded New York's workforce shortages in long-term care, according to the state Association of Health Care Providers. The association is urging the Department of Homeland Security to roll back the termination of categorical parole programs for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, as well as the partial rollback of temporary protected status or TPS extension and the termination of TPS status for Venezuelans. Earlier this month, the Trump administration announced sweeping cuts to temporary protections for immigrants, including the 76,000 Hondurans and Nicaraguans on TPS. Immigrants without another type of immigration status will be at risk of deportation come September. 'The home care sector is already struggling with a workforce shortage, and the removal of potentially tens of thousands of legally authorized workers will only deepen the crisis and put essential services out of reach for those who need them most,' Laura Ehrich, HCP's vice president of public policy, said in a statement. In a survey conducted among HCP's membership, licensed home care agencies across the state reported that more than 75 percent of their workforce consists of immigrants who are authorized to work. Nearly half of the agencies that responded to the survey said they have lost staff due to the changes in immigration policy. In addition, more than half of the respondents said they are struggling to fill shifts, and 25 percent said they are having trouble recruiting new staff. In New York City, health care workers — especially ones in support roles, such as home care and personal care aides — are more likely to be foreign-born than all other kinds of workers, according to a January report by the Center for Migration Studies. The vast majority are naturalized or legal noncitizens, the report found based on 2022 data. Ehrich noted that, with the state's growing population of older adults, the long-term care industry cannot afford to lose workers. 'These changes are short-sighted, harmful and must be reversed,' Ehrich said. The group is also calling on the federal government to find permanent immigration solutions for workers in the industry to stay in the country. IN OTHER NEWS: — AIM Independent Living Center was awarded $2 million from the state Office of Mental Health to improve the mental health of farmers and agribusiness workers and their families. AIM will receive the funding over five years for statewide implementation of the Farmers Supporting Farmers program, which provides free, confidential consultation services to approximately 1,000 New Yorkers. GOT TIPS? Send story ideas and feedback to Maya Kaufman at mkaufman@ and Katelyn Cordero at kcordero@ Want to receive this newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to POLITICO Pro. You'll also receive daily policy news and other intelligence you need to act on the day's biggest stories. Odds and Ends NOW WE KNOW — The fear of losing Medicaid coverage has some parents rushing to vaccinate their children. TODAY'S TIP — Experts share advice on assessing your risk of Lyme Disease. STUDY THIS — Via STAT: Lilly's Alzheimer treatment was endorsed by European regulators, the drug was shown to slow patients' decline, but comes with side effect concerns. WHAT WE'RE READING — Trump voters wanted relief from medical bills. For millions, the bills are about to get bigger. (KFF Health News) — States, cities face loss of vaccination programs and staff after baffling cuts to federal funding. (CNN) — An unusual FDA panel on antidepressant use during pregnancy elevated skeptics of the drugs. (STAT) Around POLITICO — Republican senators urge White House to release delayed NIH funds, Katherine Tully-McManus reports. — FDA commissioner says he has no 'preconceived plans' on policy changes for abortion drug, Nicole Markus reports. MISSED A ROUNDUP? Get caught up on the New York Health Care Newsletter.
Los Angeles Times
4 days ago
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Afghans in California reeling amid Trump administration travel ban, end of deportation protections
Afghans who relocated to California have been reeling over the past few months and weeks as the Trump administration has moved to end deportation protections amid increasing efforts to further restrict Afghan nationals from coming to the U.S. This week, despite efforts by an organization suing to maintain the protections, the Trump administration ended Temporary Protected Status for Afghans, which the U.S. granted in May 2022 after it withdrew military forces from Afghanistan. The status allowed Afghans to come to the U.S. and obtain work authorization, but it did not provide a pathway to citizenship. 'People are desperate,' said Shawn VanDiver, the founder and president of AfghanEvac, a nonprofit that supports the safe relocation of Afghan allies. 'They've followed all the rules. They've done everything the U.S. asked them to do, and at every corner, the Trump administration has been blocking them.' The Trump administration in January suspended Afghan refugee programs and canceled scheduled flights for Afghans cleared by the government. In May, the State Department sent layoff notices to staff at the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts, known as CARE, the agency tasked with working to ensure Afghans got settled into the U.S. with government support. And in June, Trump instituted a travel ban, suspending travel for Afghan nationals to the U.S. and leaving families who had been hoping to reunify stuck in limbo. Afghans have increasingly gotten caught up in the Trump administration's efforts to ramp up deportations. In San Diego, an Afghan national who worked as a translator for the U.S. military and had been granted humanitarian parole was detained after attending an asylum hearing at immigration court. The Department of Homeland Security announced in May that it would terminate Temporary Protected Status for Afghans. Secretary Kristi Noem said conditions in Afghanistan 'do not meet the requirements for a TPS designation.' In a press release, the department said: 'The Secretary determined that, overall, there are notable improvements in the security and economic situation such that requiring the return of Afghan nationals to Afghanistan does not pose a threat to their personal safety due to ongoing-armed conflict or extraordinary and temporary conditions.' Many organizations that help relocate Afghans criticized the move, saying conditions in Afghanistan, now under the Taliban, are not safe for those who fled, especially for those who assisted the U.S. military during the war. Casa, a national advocacy organization, filed a lawsuit against DHS, challenging the end of TPS for Afghans, as well as for Cameroonians, as unlawful. On Monday, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals denied a motion by Casa to postpone the agency's actions. The case remains ongoing in U.S. District Court in Maryland. In a statement, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said individuals who arrived on TPS can still apply for asylum and other protections. She said the end of TPS 'furthers the national interest and the statutory provision that TPS is in fact designed to be temporary.' TPS has been a crucial stopgap for Afghans who made it to the U.S. but whose applications for asylum, or for the Special Immigrant Visas granted to Afghans who have worked with the U.S. government, are still pending, caught in major backlogs. Halema Wali, a co-director at Afghans for a Better Tomorrow, a nonprofit that advocates for Afghan refugees in the New York City metropolitan area and has supported families entering the U.S. from Tijuana, said that nearly all of the organization's 800 members are on TPS. 'They are petrified,' Wali said. 'They are not sure how to approach this, and quite honestly, we are scrambling to figure out how we make them safe when the only thing protecting them from deportation is gone.' Global Refuge, an organization that has resettled thousands of Afghans, said that as many as 11,700 Afghans in the U.S. are now vulnerable to deportation, and those who do not have other means to gain legal status or pending applications could lose work authorization. 'Ending TPS does not align with the reality of circumstances on the ground in Afghanistan,' Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, chief executive of Global Refuge, said in a statement. 'Conditions remain dire, especially for allies who supported the U.S. mission, as well as women, girls, religious minorities, and ethnic groups targeted by the Taliban. The anxiety among our Afghan clients is real and growing.' Vignarajah called on Congress to establish a pathway to citizenship for Afghans. California has become home to many Afghan refugees — as many as 58,600 call the state home, more than any other state, according to the Migration Policy Institute. The Greater Sacramento area hosts some 20,000 Afghan refugees, one of the largest communities in the U.S. The city of Fremont, which has a neighborhood known as 'Little Kabul' for its array of Afghan shops and restaurants, raised nearly half a million dollars for its Afghan Refugee Help Fund, launched in 2021, to help newly arrived Afghans. Harris Mojadedi, an Afghan American advocate in the Fremont area, said there is deep uncertainty amid shifting immigration policies. Afghans in the community have started receiving self-deportation notices from DHS, and many are struggling to figure out what comes next. He knows of one Afghan couple, where one spouse has TPS and the other is a U.S. citizen, who are living each day as if it is their last together. Many Afghans are scared to speak out, he said, for fear of government retribution. People have become afraid of dropping their children off at school or calling the police if they are victims of crime, he said. 'Just like we're seeing with other communities, there's a lot of fear in the [Afghan] community,' Mojadedi said, referencing the immigration raids that have largely affected the Latino community. Shala Gafary, an attorney who leads a team focused on legal assistance for Afghans at asylum advocacy nonprofit Human Rights First, said they are still seeing the aftermath of the U.S.' chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, where thousands of Afghans were separated. She has helped families file applications to be relocated to the U.S. and reunite with their families under a program facilitated by the Biden administration. But as soon as Trump entered office, he issued an order suspending U.S. refugee programs and canceled flights scheduled to bring some 1,660 Afghans cleared by the U.S. government to resettle in the U.S., including family members of active-duty U.S. military personnel. Gafary and other immigration attorneys are fielding calls every day from families asking what they can do. And she doesn't have an answer for them. She has had to instruct other attorneys — who ask what they should say to their clients — that all they can do is tell Afghan families the truth, that there are no options available. 'Since January, it's been nothing but bad news for the Afghan population,' Gafary said. Back in Afghanistan, thousands living under Taliban rule worry for their futures. Their options for making a life elsewhere have shrunk exponentially, as neighboring nations Pakistan and Iran have begun deporting Afghan refugees en masse, and Trump placed Afghanistan on the U.S. travel ban list earlier this year. For Afghan Americans in California who had eagerly anticipated the arrival of relatives who sought asylum in the U.S., Trump's immigration crackdown has been crushing. One Southern California resident, a 26-year-old Afghan American woman, told The Times that seven of her family members, including her grandmother and several cousins, are now in limbo after having their visas approved but no confirmation that the U.S. will allow them in. They were scheduled to arrive in March from Afghanistan but were not allowed in. The woman, who requested anonymity because she fears repercussions from the Trump administration for her family members still hoping to seek asylum in the U.S., said her family still hopes policy will shift and they will be let in because they have no other option. She said young girls in her family haven't been able to go to school, and another cousin who had been working for an international aid organization is not allowed to work anymore. 'Everyone is holding their breath to see what happens next,' she said. 'The best thing we can do is just hope for the best, do what we can and check in on each other and keep our heads held up high.'
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Miami Herald
4 days ago
- Politics
- Miami Herald
I'm proud Miami Beach is standing up against anti-immigrant rhetoric
On Wednesday, the city of Miami Beach did something powerful. With unanimous support, the city commission adopted a resolution I sponsored condemning the use of dangerous and dehumanizing rhetoric against immigrants. This resolution doesn't concern itself with partisan politics or border policy. It doesn't call for open borders, nor does it question the need for lawful and orderly immigration. It draws a moral line — one that people of conscience, regardless of party, should be able to agree on. It says: 'The Miami Beach mayor and commission strongly oppose dehumanizing and violent rhetoric targeting immigrants, including the Alligator Alcatraz detention facility and statements by national leaders and is affirming the dignity and contributions of Hispanic and immigrant families in Miami Beach...' This resolution makes Miami Beach one of the first cities in Florida to formally oppose Alligator Alcatraz and the national political discourse that supports it. I understand the complexity of immigration in this country. And I welcome robust, even passionate debate about how to fix the system. But that debate cannot happen if we begin by stripping people of their human dignity. If we can agree to speak with respect about immigrants, we may clear away enough of the static to begin a more thoughtful, less performative conversation about real solutions. As a proud son of Cuban exiles, I grew up with a deep appreciation for the promise of this country — and I've always worn my roots with pride. But today, I meet people who feel the need to hide theirs — not out of shame, but out of fear. That fear is not a reflection of their character — it's a reflection of ours. It means the promise of America that once welcomed my family is slipping further out of reach. That promise now feels endangered by a rising tide of anti-immigrant rhetoric designed not to inform, but to inflame. Political leaders have repeatedly referred to immigrants as 'animals,' 'vermin,' 'poison' and 'parasites.' That's not just offensive — it's dangerous. We're seeing the consequences unfold. I have constituents — law-abiding immigrants — who are afraid to call 911, afraid to seek medical attention, even afraid to show up for a court hearing. Others, including TPS and DACA recipients, and young professionals like doctors with valid work permits, live in constant fear that their lives will be uprooted. Some are being held in detention facilities under conditions no American would accept for themselves or their loved ones — no access to attorneys, limited medical care, no clergy, family separation and stripped of hope. The people experiencing this are not faceless hypotheticals — and they are not all criminals, as some political rhetoric suggests. These are our neighbors. They cared for our aging loved ones, taught music to children, built our homes and contributed in countless ways to our community. Local businesses are struggling to retain talented immigrant workers. Immigrant tourists — vital to our economy — are being driven away by the growing sense that they're unwelcome. Words have real consequences. For months, I've struggled with the limits of what I can do legally. As a Hispanic elected official, I've wanted to do so much more — but the laws are real, and my fear has always been that even well-intentioned efforts could invite retaliation that harms the very people I want to protect. In the absence of stronger protections, this resolution is about doing what I still can — standing up for dignity. We are also answering the call of faith and humanity. Days ago, Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski reminded us of Pope Francis's teaching in Fratelli Tutti — 'we belong to one another.' That truth must guide our words, especially in moments like these. In his homily, the Archbishop recalled the haunting moment when political leaders stood before cages at the makeshift detention center and made light of the fear and pain of those inside. He asked if we could truly say, in that moment, that 'we belong to one another,' that the dignity of others was being recognized. I believe that this week, Miami Beach answered that question with moral clarity. Alex Fernandez is a Miami Beach commissioner.
