City Council support of the Temporary Protected Status Visa program and the 19 Attorney's General letter asking Congressional Leaders to support legislation granting Temporary Protected Status recipients permanent legal status

City of Cambridge O-7 ORIGINAL ORDER IN CITY COUNCIL March 26, 2018 MAYOR MCGOVERN WHEREAS: The City of Cambridge is a proud supporter of immigrants, including undocumented immigrants, and has been a Sanctuary City since 1985; and WHEREAS: The Secretary of Homeland Security has recently ended the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Nicaragua, El Salvador, Haiti and Sudan with the same designations for Honduras, Yemen, Somalia and Nepal due to expire later this year; and WHEREAS: TPS provides temporary, lawful, protected legal status to foreign nationals living and working in the United States from countries experiencing armed conflict, natural disasters or other extraordinary conditions that would safely prevent TPS recipients from returning safely to their home countries; and WHEREAS: Congress needs to act to protect TPS recipients and their families from being torn apart; and WHEREAS: Communities will be directly harmed by the removal of hundreds of thousands of long- term residents by being returned to countries that are unsafe and unprepared for them to be taken in; and WHEREAS: The Attorney's General of the States of California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and The District of Columbia have each signed on to a letter addressed to Congressional Leaders urging them to pass legislation to grant permanent legal status for TPS recipients; now therefore be it RESOLVED: That the City Council go on record in support of the Temporary Protected Status Visa program and the 19 Attorney's General letter asking Congressional Leaders to support legislation granting TPS recipients permanent legal status; and be it further RESOLVED: That the City Clerk be and hereby is requested to forward suitably engrossed copies of this resolution to the members of the Massachusetts delegation in Congress, including Senator Elizabeth Warren and Senator Ed Markey, on behalf of the entire City Council.