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U.S Senators Klobuchar, Ellison Urge President Obama to Extend Deferred Enforced Departure for Liberians
By Rick Jauert, Washington, D.C
Today U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar and Representative Keith Ellison called on President Obama to take swift action to extend Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) for Liberians living legally in the United States.
Klobuchar and Ellison have long been leaders in Congress in fighting for the Liberian community in the United States, and both members recently met with leaders of Minnesota’s Liberian community to discuss the proposed extension of DED status and its importance to the thousands of Liberians residing in Minnesota.
“Liberians need their DED status re-extended as soon as possible. The Liberian Community has become an important part of the social fabric of Minnesota - they are our neighbors and our co-workers,” said Senator Klobuchar. “While Liberia continues to be unstable, it is important
that Liberians who are here legally have a sense of certainty that they will be able to continue to call Minnesota home.”
“Liberian-Americans contribute productively to our communities in Minnesota. They pay taxes; their children go to school; they shop and work in our factories and stores. They are part of who Minnesota is today. The Administration should grant Deferred Extended Status quickly
because the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation never accounted for a conflict that has gone on for decades,” said Congressman Keith Ellison.
Klobuchar and Ellison, both previously joined in introducing Liberian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act in the Senate and the House, respectively. The bill would allow Liberians who were brought to the United States legally under temporary protection status classification to apply for permanent residency.
The two also helped lead the successful fight grant to DED to eligible Liberians in September 2007, authorized by President Bush, and again pushed for the one-year DED extension authorized by President Obama in March 2008. The current DED protection is set to expire March 31, 2010.
Klobuchar and Ellison say that an expulsion of thousands of Liberians from the United States could easily overwhelm and reverse the advances that Liberia has made in recent years. They also point out that Liberians in the United States are providing financial support to Liberia through remittances to their families currently in the country.
In 1989, a civil war in Liberia displaced over half the country’s population and many Liberians sought refuge in the United States. More than 30,000 Liberians reside in Minnesota and an estimated 1,000 currently are living under DED status. Since 1991, these refugees have been granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS) or Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) status.
On Friday, February 12 Klobuchar and 12 other senators, including Senator Al Franken, sent a letter to the President calling for the extension of DED status and highlighting the instability that still exists in Liberia.
Editor @ February 25, 2010
when Liberians remove their racist law that no white person can own land or become a citizen of Liberia then they can ask for the same treatment for the US. Liberians here should not be asking for the very thing they have denied others for so long.
While they live here, whites born in Liberia are struggling with the day to day realities of living in Liberia, helping to rebuild their country yet not being part of it. What is good for the goose is good for the gander. Let them repeal that law.
Besides, didn’t the Liberian president say that the Liberians here are needed to build their homeland. Let them go back and build Liberia. Liberians have been on TPS for more than 15 years. It is time to cut that string.
The article below this one says that he Liberian leaser thanks Ghana but is asking Liberians to return home. Why should one country send Liberians back and another be asked to keep extending their time. Liberia is on the road to recovery and everyone is needed to help in that process. Liberians in the US should take back with them the skills they have learned here and go help Liberia. Many of them go back and look down on the others who have always remained in Liberia. Why is that?
The Liberians Constitution also forbids any person who is not black of ever becoming a Liberian citizen or owning land, even if that white person was born in Liberia. Imagine that law in this day and age. Imagine if another country , say the US, had that law? There would be protests all over. Liberia needs to do away with that law . Liberia also needs Liberians in the diaspora to help the country. Sadly, if they were sent back, all many of them would do is sit down all day and talk about “when I was abroad…”