LI Hondurans with Temporary Protective Status worry as Trump administration aims to end program for them

Ramon Canales came to the United States from Honduras 30 years ago and has done everything from working in construction to finishing swimming pools to making pizzas in a restaurant.

But now after building a life here the West Hempstead resident and thousands of other natives of Honduras may lose their legal status and face arrest and deportation. The Trump administration is moving to shut down a program called Temporary Protected Status as part of its overall immigration crackdown.

The program offers protection against deportation to people whose home countries are considered unsafe because of war, natural disaster or other problems. TPS was approved for Hondurans after Hurricane Mitch killed at least 10,000 people in Central America in 1998, most of them in Honduras and Nicaragua. TPS, which also provides a legal work permit, can — and has been — extended for years for those two countries.

Late Thursday, a federal judge in California extended tempory protected status for 60,000 people, including from Honduras, Nicaragua and Nepal.

It is "not just" if TPS is shut down, Canales, 52, said in Spanish on Thursday. "We are people, not like they say we are criminals. We are hardworking people. We are here looking for a better future."

President Donald Trump is carrying out what he pledges will be the largest deportation campaign in U.S. history, targeting what he says are dangerous criminals living in the country illegally.

But the effort has swept up not just people with no criminal records, but also some who are here with legal status and have become valued members of their communities, according to advocates.

"TPS is a promise that the U.S. made," Nadia Marin-Molina, a leader of the National Day Laborers Organizing Network, said at a news conference in Hicksville on Thursday. "But if TPS was a promise, then the Trump administration has broken that promise."

The Trump administration contends TPS was not meant to be permanent.

"Temporary Protected Status was designed to be just that — temporary," Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, said in a statement in June when ending the designation for Honduras was announced. "It is clear that the Government of Honduras has taken all of the necessary steps to overcome the impacts of Hurricane Mitch, almost 27 years ago."

The news conference, which also included Canales, was organized by Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove), who praised Trump for securing the border and deporting gang members, but says the effort "has gone too far."

"This is not what the American people asked for," he said. "What’s happening now is bad for business, it’s bad for law enforcement, and it is actually very inhumane and unfair to people and I believe it’s un-American."

On Long Island, those swept up in the crackdown include an honors student at Suffolk County Community College, a popular manager of a bagel cafe in Port Washington, and a mother of five from Brentwood whose children are now separated from her.

Suozzi and others on Thursday called for Trump to allow TPS to remain in effect for Honduras, arguing that many of the immigrants have lived here for decades, paid taxes and filled key jobs in nursing homes, home health care businesses and other industries.

About 50,000 Hondurans in the United States have TPS, which is set to expire for them on Sept. 8, officials said. Trump has already moved to end TPS for other countries including Haiti, Venezuela, Afghanistan, Cameroon and Nepal. A total of 17 countries have TPS designations, according to the Council on Foreign Relations, a Manhattan-based think tank.

Immigrants from other TPS countries said they were worried they would be next to lose it.

Gladys Morales, 70, of Hempstead, said she fled El Salvador for the United States in 1991 at the tail end of a civil war that killed at least 75,000 people, including teachers, priests and activists.

Since she crossed the U.S.-Mexico border 35 years ago, she has worked cleaning houses and taking care of children and elderly people, she said in Spanish at the news conference. She has TPS benefits.

"I arrived here with almost nothing," she said. "But I have constructed my life here."

"I’m going to fight for family and our future," she added.

Lorraine Brown-Zanders, vice president of 1199SEIU, a major health care workers union, said immigrants like Morales with TPS protection made up about 30% of the workforce at some nursing homes on Long Island.

If TPS is ended, it will have a "grave impact," she said. "We are going to see nursing homes close."

The Associated Press contributed to this story.