Menchaca calls on feds to do more for immigrants
In a sharp rebuke of the U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down President Barack Obama’s executive order protecting certain undocumented immigrants from deportation, Councilmember Carlos Menchaca called on the federal government to do more to assist immigrants.
Menchaca, who is the chairman of the council’s Committee on Immigration, said at a City Hall press conference on Monday that his committee is reviewing two resolutions: one that calls on the State Department to resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees in the U.S. and to increase the number to 65,000 next year, and another which calls on the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to designate Ecuador for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to provide relief to Ecuadorian nationals living in the U.S.
TPS is a program that allows the government to extend the stay of foreigners whose countries have experienced a natural disaster, conflict or other event that makes it too dangerous to return home.