Greetings from South Florida: Postcard campaign calls for TPS for Nicaragua, other nations

Ángela del Socorro Valle, an 82-year-old Nicaraguan woman, sat on a folding chair outside the premises of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Miramar on Wednesday morning. She was there to accompany her 32-year-old grandson, who left their homeland a month ago, as he checked in with immigration authorities.

In Nicaragua “there is no work. Our government is on the rocks. If you don’t belong to their party, you’re nothing; they persecute you, make your life miserable,” she said.

And as she waited for her grandchild, Valle, who described herself as a “very proud” U.S. citizen grateful for the opportunities she has had since moving to the United States in 1993, exercised a fundamental American right: freedom of speech.

Under the shade of the trees, she wrote a postcard to Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, asking him to grant Nicaraguans Temporary Protected Status — a form of immigration relief that allows people from countries in turmoil already residing in the United States to temporarily live and work here.

She asked “that they extend it for all the citizens who come for the same purpose. Venezuelans, Cubans, Guatemalans, Hondurans,” she said.

Valle is one of the dozens of immigrants, U.S. citizens and activists who in recent weeks have joined a multilingual postcard-writing campaign aimed at Mayorkas, urging him to extend the protection to Nicaragua and other Central American nations.

The advocacy group Miramar Circle of Protection, which goes to the ICE office every Wednesday to support people in immigration proceedings, is spearheading the initiative. For years, they have offered water, snacks and guidance. Since last month, at the organization’s table, immigrants can now pick up a postcard to advocate for themselves and TPS and share their thoughts on the U.S. immigration system and their experiences at the Miramar ICE office.

“Sec. Mayorkas, I am Nicaraguan. I came 6 months ago fleeing the repression in my country. I ask you to give us TPS and protect us from deportation. Thanks in advance. God bless you,” reads one of the approximately 70 postcards collected so far.

Berta Wilson, of the American Friends Service Committee and the Miramar Circle of Protection, holds up some of the postcards the postcard writing campaign has collected
Berta Wilson, of the American Friends Service Committee and the Miramar Circle of Protection, holds up some of the postcards the postcard writing campaign has collected

The postcard greetings to Mayorkas are part of a wider push in South Florida ⁠— led by the Circle, the Florida Immigrant Coalition, the American Friends Service Committee and others ⁠— calling on the Biden administration for Temporary Protected Status for Nicaraguans and other Central American countries.

“I have read so many postcards that I end up crying. The need is palpable,” said Berta Wilson, a Nicaraguan domestic worker and community organizer with the American Friends Service Committee, “You feel it in the words they write. Many ask for relief; many ask, ‘Please don’t deport me, don’t send me back to Nicaragua, give me a chance; I can’t go back.’”

Many letter writers, added Wilson, also ask for comprehensive immigration reform.

“There are people from other countries, from Colombia, from Venezuela, who are writing, ‘Give us relief, help us,” she said, “It is a cry for help.”

Miramar Circle of Protection Member Berta Wilson holds up a postcard from a Venezuelan who wrote a poscard to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Miramar Circle of Protection Member Berta Wilson holds up a postcard from a Venezuelan who wrote a poscard to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Last month, Democratic U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist joined Nicaraguans living in South Florida in a roundtable discussion advocating for TPS for Nicaragua. Days later, at the behest of local Miami activists, Crist and a bipartisan group of Florida lawmakers asked the Biden administration to “redesignate and extend” the humanitarian protection to the Central American nation.

Florida members of Congress ask Biden administration to give Nicaraguans protected status

“We strongly urge you ... to protect tens of thousands of Nicaraguan men, women, and children who would face great risk to their safety should they return to Nicaragua at this time,” the group said in a letter.

The Trump administration ended TPS for Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador, a decision that program recipients have challenged in federal courts and that has left TPS holders from those nations in legal limbo. Activists hope that a Biden administration redesignation and expansion of TPS for Nicaragua and other countries would shield thousands of immigrants in the U.S. from deportation.

The program had roughly 4,500 Nicaraguan recipients as of November 2018, according to a public records analysis from the Temporary Protected Status Advocacy Working Group. Approximately 45%, the highest concentration of any state, lived in Florida.

Activists from the Miramar Circle of Protection said they had noted a sharp increase in Nicaraguans approaching the Miramar Circle of Protection’s weekly table over the last year.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has recorded nearly 122,000 encounters with Nicaraguan nationals since October at the U.S.-Mexico border, compared to approximately 50,000 encounters in all of 2021.

The postcard campaign also comes amid a recent Department of Homeland Security announcement that Venezuela’s TPS designation would be extended another 18 months. The protection, however, wasn’t expanded to include more people who came after the program’s established arrival date, which Florida officials, activists, and immigrants had demanded.

Florida Venezuelans celebrate TPS extension, but urge Biden to expand the program

“We believe that Nicaraguans are in a very similar situation politically to Venezuelans…and the reality is that they are not doing anything to help people fleeing from that dictatorship,” said Maria Bilbao, a campaign coordinator for the American Friends Service Committee.

When the opportunity arises, the plan is to hand the letters to Mayorkas, putting the postcard pleas penned on the premises of Miramar’s ICE office directly in the hands of the country’s top immigration official.

Nayive Acevedo, a political opposition leader from southern Nicaragua, came to the U.S. two months ago. She traveled from her home country through Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico, fleeing political persecution with her 11- and 16-year-old sons. Eventually, the family found their way to Texas.

It wasn’t the first time they had escaped Nicaragua because of the family’s activism. Acevedo and her two children had previously spent two years in Panama, she said, when President Daniel Ortega’s government jailed her husband for his activism during a 2018 political crackdown.

“What we said was that if one were imprisoned, the other would get away with the kids to safeguard their lives and the life of whoever was free,” she said, “So it was my turn to go out.”

On Wednesday, Acevedo and her two sons were in Miramar to offer support to the work of the Miramar Circle of Protection. She herself wrote her own postcard asking TPS for Nicaraguans.

“People are trying through postcards, to say, ‘We are human beings, please treat me better,’” said Wilson.

You can read some of the postcards below:

One of the postcards from a South Florida campaign asking Department of Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to grant Temporary Protected Status, a form of immigration relief, to Nicaragua and other Central American nations.
One of the postcards from a South Florida campaign asking Department of Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to grant Temporary Protected Status, a form of immigration relief, to Nicaragua and other Central American nations.
One of the postcards from a South Florida campaign asking Department of Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to grant Temporary Protected Status, a form of immigration relief, to Nicaragua and other Central American nations.
One of the postcards from a South Florida campaign asking Department of Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to grant Temporary Protected Status, a form of immigration relief, to Nicaragua and other Central American nations.
One of the postcards from a South Florida campaign asking Department of Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to grant Temporary Protected Status, a form of immigration relief, to Nicaragua and other Central American nations.
One of the postcards from a South Florida campaign asking Department of Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to grant Temporary Protected Status, a form of immigration relief, to Nicaragua and other Central American nations.
One of the postcards from a South Florida campaign asking Department of Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to grant Temporary Protected Status, a form of immigration relief, to Nicaragua and other Central American nations.
One of the postcards from a South Florida campaign asking Department of Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to grant Temporary Protected Status, a form of immigration relief, to Nicaragua and other Central American nations.
One of the postcards from a South Florida campaign asking Department of Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to grant Temporary Protected Status, a form of immigration relief, to Nicaragua and other Central American nations.
One of the postcards from a South Florida campaign asking Department of Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to grant Temporary Protected Status, a form of immigration relief, to Nicaragua and other Central American nations.

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