With fewer than 30 days left in office, many are calling for President Obama to take last minute action on a few key issues. One of the major areas of concern as President-elect Trump takes office is immigration. President-elect Trump has promised in his immigration plan to eliminate sanctuary cities and put into place policies that would negatively affect the immigrant community. Cities For Action Coalition is one of many calling on the President to help protect members of the Caribbean immigrant community from Trump's soon-to-be-enacted policies.
The coalition, which consists of more than 100 mayors and county executives, is advocating for inclusion and national immigration reform. The coalition is specifically requesting that President Obama continues to support Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival recipients and immigrants who have temporary protected status. His support of both would mean approving and accepting early renewal applications for DACA holders that would provide temporary protection. It would also mean working with USCIS to speed up processing of initial and renewal DACA applications. Most importantly, President Obama's support would include additional privacy measures being put into place to protect those immigrants who have been afraid to come out of hiding.
The Obama Administration has worked hard to protect those who were forced to flee their country because of natural disasters and armed conflict. With the new administration, those protections might no longer be in place. Therefore, immigrants from places such as Ecuador and Haiti need President Obama to work with USCIS to quickly process temporary protection status applications and re-registrations.
The countdown is on as the country watches to see what President Obama will do in these last days. Hopefully, the items listed in the letter are on the top of his list and immigrants can get a sense of safety despite the potential policies that are sure to greatly impact their lives when he's gone.
