Faith Communities and Immigrants to Embark on Jericho Walk in Newark
On Tuesday, October 2, 2018 faith leaders, clergy, advocates and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) recipients will participate in a Jericho Walk in front of the Peter Rodino Federal Building in a march for the rights and dignity of all TPS recipients. The Jericho Walk is a silent interfaith prayer and act of solidarity drawing inspiration from the Battle of Jericho, in which the community marched around the city of Jericho seven times, causing the city walls to fall. The Jericho Walk of today is a silent, peaceful, and prayerful walk to bring down the walls of our unjust immigration system and is open to people of all or no faiths.
Leading this walk will be Reverend Timothy G. Graff of the Archdiocese of Newark. Faith leaders, clergy and community members will also be joined by the National TPS Alliance and the Journey for Justice Caravan during the eighth week of its tour across the country to lift the collective voices of the TPS community.
Together participants speak out against the administration’s cruel termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for over 300,000 people from Sudan, Nicaragua, Nepal, Haiti, El Salvador, Honduras and Yemen who, as a result, will face deportation to countries ill-equipped to safely accommodate their return. Advocates have highlighted the devastating impact that these cancellations will have on communities in the U.S. and beyond.
“If TPS recipients are returned to their countries we are literally putting their lives in danger. They fled here for safety and sometimes this is the only home their children have ever known. We cannot simply turn our backs on them now in their time of greatest need”, said Reverend Tim Graff.
TPS recipients and allies across the state have mobilized to demand extensions to the program as well as roadmaps to residency for the many TPS recipients that are deeply integrated into their communities as long term residents of the United States. TPS recipients from Haiti, Honduras and El Salvador alone are parents to 273,000 citizen children to whom they provide essential care and emotional support.
“Many of us with TPS have lived in the United States for over two decades. We deserve a permanent residency. We pay taxes and support the economies of our communities, paying rent, buying cars and employing others. We have children born here in the United States that do not know anything of El Salvador or the countries that we are from. Here, our children are able to access education and opportunity that are not available to them in our countries. We are fighting for the futures of our children and our families”, said Luiz Munoz a resident of New Jersey and TPS recipient from El Salvador.
When: Tuesday, October 2nd 2018 at 3 PM
Where: Peter Rodino Federal Building at 970 Broad Street, Newark, NJ 07102