00:00And more than 50,000 Hondurans lost their temporary protected status, TPS, in the United States by orders of Donald
00:08Trump.
00:08Migrants and their families feel that the Honduran government is doing nothing to safeguard their rights.
00:14Gerardo Torres Zelaya reports from Tegucigalp, Honduras.
00:19On September 8, 2025, Donald Trump's government fulfilled one of its promises
00:25and revoked a temporary protected status, TPS, of 55,000 Hondurans, who had held this benefit for over 20 years.
00:33The Honduran right wing had always tried to blame Xiomara Castro's leftist government for this,
00:39claiming that if they were in power, the United States would not have taken actions against Hondurans.
00:44Yet, after winning the elections and with the National Party seven months into its term,
00:49the situation for migrants has worsened.
00:51The current government has not even managed to secure the extensions that the Castro administration achieved.
01:00I believe there is a lot of noise from the Esfora government regarding TPS.
01:04During President Xiomara Castro's administration, they acted as an opposition force,
01:08seeking to have Honduras sanctioned from every possible angle.
01:12They visited lawmakers from the most extreme wings of the Republican Party,
01:16precisely seeking to eliminate the benefits available to Honduran migrants.
01:20Now, with a different approach, they are trying once the entire issue has already unfolded
01:24to claim they will achieve something, even though the Trump administration's policy toward TPS is clear.
01:29Honestly, I believe there is very little they can do.
01:34Most TPS beneficiaries arrived in the United States after Hurricane Mitch's impact Central America in 1998
01:41and have lived there for over 25 years.
01:45Maintaining their status requires a spotless record.
01:48Consequently, after all this time, they have proven to be exemplary citizens between their communities.
01:54They and their families are organized and are calling for more concrete actions from Honduran authorities.
02:00It is unfortunate because Nasri Asfura has made multiple visits to the United States.
02:07Yet on June 25, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling stating that no lower court can block a
02:12decision
02:12made by that country's executive branch.
02:14This decision affected more than 350,000 Haitians, 6,000 Syrians,
02:19and the 55,000 Hondurans benefiting from the temporary protection regime known as TPS.
02:25Regrettably, our current government is not doing what is necessary to protect Hondurans.
02:32TPS beneficiaries have held legal immigration status in the United States for more than two decades.
02:38But now they will face the same uncertainty as other migrants,
02:42that at any moment they could be detained by that country's immigration authorities.
02:46René Amador lived in the United States illegally and remembers what it was like
02:51to live in fear of being deported.
02:58The first problem is the daily anguish, the paranoia that develops,
03:04and the pain of knowing that at any moment a son or daughter raised in our own home could be
03:09deported.
03:11Productivity drops.
03:12It diminishes qualitatively.
03:14And that is when a person begins to lose the very dignity for which they migrated,
03:19for which they left everything behind.
03:24It seems ironic that while Samara Castro's government held a political stance different from that of President Trump,
03:31and those differences sometimes created tensions,
03:34Honduras managed to secure three extensions under the administration following the notice of the status termination.
03:41Yet the current government, which was literally orchestrated and overseen by Trump in a clear act of interference,
03:48a government he himself installed,
03:50has failed to secure even a single new extension or achieve anything for the benefit of Honduran migrants in the
03:57United States.
03:58Gerardo Torres, Telesur, Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
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