Evelyn was working in Ecuador’s thriving tourism industry, which rose to prominence through the Galapagos Islands, Inca ruins, and national parks, when the COVID-19 pandemic brought the country to a standstill and she lost her job.
With a small motorcycle and a young son to take care of, she is a delivery driver, traveling throughout the city of Quito and witnessing firsthand the effects of the country’s economic crisis and escalating violence.
As Ecuador emerged from the pandemic lockdown, a new crisis gripped the once-peaceful country: gang violence fueled by foreign cartels. Since 2018, the homicide rate has quadrupled. Several violent episodes have made foreign headlines in recent years: a criminal who led to beheadings, the murder of an anti-gang presidential candidate, and the seizure of a television station by armed and masked men.
Evelyn sold everything she owned in Ecuador and left, flying first to Spain and then to Minnesota, where an increasing number of Ecuadorians live. She hoped to find a solid job, an English education for her son, and a safer environment.
But without legal residency or work permits, Evelyn can only find occasional work cleaning office buildings. She had no family or friends in Minnesota to help her care for her son and struggled to pay rent and childcare despite working 12 to 10 years. 14 hours a day.
Today, she is helping lead an organization of other Ecuadorians to pressure the federal government to grant Ecuador transitory status, which would allow Ecuadorians already in the U. S. to be granted transitorial status. The U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (USCIS) is required to remain and work legally as long as the TPS designation is active.
The countries designated for TPS are Afghanistan, Somalia, El Salvador, Haiti, Syria, and Ukraine.
“With TPS, I can find a task outside of cleanup. . . and most importantly, in my life,” Evelyne said.
Evelyn asked the Reformer to publish his latest appeal for fear of revealing his immigration status.
While both political parties in Washington are running to stop the flow of other people crossing the border, Evelyn and other Ecuadorians say they just need the possibility of having a dignified life for their families, something that is unimaginable in their home country given such instability. violence and poverty.
The U. S. immigration government The U. S. government can designate a country for TPS if the situations in that country are so harmful that the U. S. government will not be able to apply for TPS. The U. S. Department of Defense deports its citizens safely. A bill introduced in February in the U. S. House of RepresentativesThe U. S. Rep. through New York Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Adriano Espaillat called for TPS to be granted prestige to Ecuador.
Rep. Ilhan Oman, D-Minn. , is a co-author of the bill.
On a daily basis, Ecuadorians face increasing extortion through criminal organizations, street violence, school closures, an economic crisis, and lack of access to basic commodities such as food and clean water. Many flee to other countries, including the United States, crossing the damaging Colombian jungle region known as the Darien Gap before crossing Central America and Mexico to reach the U. S. border.
In Hennepin County, more than a third of people housed in homeless shelters were from Ecuador, the Star Tribune reported in October.
On Saturday afternoon, a dozen Ecuadorian immigrants gathered at an assembly owned by COPAL, which organizes Latinos to work on Minnesota’s social and political issues, for the fourth assembly of the “TPS Collective. “
Evelyn told the organization about a verbal exchange she had with Omar, who expressed his support for the cause of TPS for Ecuadorians. The TPS collective plans to bring in lawyers to answer its members’ immigration law questions, share their stories with lawmakers, and coordinate efforts with other similar teams across the country.
Most of the members are asylum seekers who turned themselves in to the immigration government at the U. S. border and were then released pending their hearings, said Francisco Segovia, director of COPAL.
Asylum seekers can legally live and work in the U. S. They are in the U. S. while waiting for their hearing date (which is several years away), but they can’t get a work permit until they’ve spent six months in the U. S. U. S.
TPS has agreed to share a percentage of affordable employment and rental opportunities with others. COPAL leaders brought food for the assembly and new vegetables for those in need.
by Madison McVan, Minnesota Reformer March 4, 2024
Evelyn was working in Ecuador’s thriving tourism industry, which rose to prominence through the Galapagos Islands, Inca ruins, and national parks, when the COVID-19 pandemic brought the country to a standstill and she lost her job.
With a small motorcycle and a young son to take care of, she is a delivery driver, traveling throughout the city of Quito and witnessing firsthand the effects of the country’s economic crisis and escalating violence.
As Ecuador emerged from the pandemic lockdown, a new crisis gripped the once-peaceful country: gang violence fueled by foreign cartels. Since 2018, the homicide rate has quadrupled. Several violent episodes have made foreign headlines in recent years: a criminal who led to beheadings, the murder of an anti-gang presidential candidate, and the seizure of a television station by armed and masked men.
Evelyn sold everything she owned in Ecuador and left, flying first to Spain and then to Minnesota, where an increasing number of Ecuadorians live. She hoped to find a solid job, an English education for her son, and a safer environment.
But without legal residency or work permits, Evelyn can only find occasional work cleaning office buildings. She had no family or friends in Minnesota to help her care for her son and struggled to pay rent and childcare despite working 12 to 10 years. 14 hours a day.
Today, she is helping lead an organization of other Ecuadorians to pressure the federal government to grant Ecuador transitory status, which would allow Ecuadorians already in the U. S. to be granted transitorial status. The U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (USCIS) is required to remain and work legally as long as the TPS designation is active.
The countries designated for TPS are Afghanistan, Somalia, El Salvador, Haiti, Syria, and Ukraine.
“With TPS, I can find a task outside of cleanup. . . and most importantly, in my life,” Evelyne said.
Evelyn asked the Reformer to publish his latest appeal for fear of revealing his immigration status.
While both political parties in Washington are running to stop the flow of other people crossing the border, Evelyn and other Ecuadorians say they just need the possibility of having a dignified life for their families, something that is unimaginable in their home country given such instability. violence and poverty.
The U. S. immigration government The U. S. government can designate a country for TPS if the situations in that country are so harmful that the U. S. government will not be able to apply for TPS. The U. S. Department of Defense deports its citizens safely. A bill introduced in February in the House of Representatives through New York Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Adriano Espaillat would grant TPS Prestige to Ecuador.
Rep. Ilhan Oman, D-Minn. , is a co-author of the bill.
On a daily basis, Ecuadorians face increasing extortion through criminal organizations, street violence, school closures, an economic crisis, and lack of access to basic commodities such as food and clean water. Many flee to other countries, including the United States, crossing the damaging Colombian jungle region known as the Darien Gap before crossing Central America and Mexico to reach the U. S. border.
In Hennepin County, more than a third of people housed in homeless shelters were from Ecuador, the Star Tribune reported in October.
On Saturday afternoon, a dozen Ecuadorian immigrants gathered at an assembly owned by COPAL, which organizes Latinos to work on Minnesota’s social and political issues, for the fourth assembly of the “TPS Collective. “
Evelyn told the organization about a verbal exchange she had with Omar, who expressed his support for the cause of TPS for Ecuadorians. The TPS collective plans to bring in lawyers to answer its members’ immigration law questions, share their stories with lawmakers, and coordinate efforts with other similar teams across the country.
Most of the members are asylum seekers who turned themselves in to the immigration government at the U. S. border and were then released pending their hearings, said Francisco Segovia, director of COPAL.
Asylum seekers can legally live and work in the U. S. They are in the U. S. while waiting for their hearing date (which is several years away), but they can’t get a work permit until they’ve spent six months in the U. S. U. S.
TPS has agreed to share a percentage of affordable employment and rental opportunities with others. COPAL leaders brought food for the assembly and new vegetables for those in need.
Minnesota Reformer is owned by States Newsroom, a grant-funded, not-for-profit news network and donor coalition as a 501c public charity(3). Minnesota Reformer maintains its editorial independence. Please contact Editor-in-Chief J. Patrick Coolican if you have any questions: info@minnesotareformer. com. Follow the Minnesota Reformer on Facebook and Twitter.
Madison McVan is a fellow at the Report for America Corps covering economic mobility for the Minnesota reformer. In the past, she covered agriculture for Investigate Midwest after graduating from the University of Missouri in 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Latin American Studies.
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