Three Minnesota cities have passed resolutions calling for the federal government to allow Ecuadorians to legally live and work in the United States.
City councils in Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Columbia Heights worked with COPAL, a Latino advocacy organization, to call attention to the need for work authorization and deportation protections for Ecuadorian residents. Temporary protected status (TPS) is a federal immigration program that designates certain countries as unsafe. Migrants from those countries can apply for TPS and extend their status as long as their country is eligible.
While the city resolutions don’t necessarily grant TPS — only the federal government can do that — representatives from the cities say they consider themselves the first line of communication for the needs of their undocumented residents.
Columbia Heights Council Member Rachel James said while Minneapolis and St. Paul are home to a large population of Ecuadorians, Columbia Heights also has a sizeable population.
“We’re elected to be their voice,” James said. “Using our collective power as a council, we voted unanimously for this resolution, to share their message with other elected officials at the federal level.”
James has heard from local clergy that there is a need for donations to aid the local undocumented community, but charity is a limited form of support.
TPS would provide families with stability and a sense of safety, according to Alexandra Giler, who came to the U.S. in December of last year after fleeing Ecuador.
Giler said her and her family were receiving threats from a person she helped put in prison for raping her daughter.
“We don’t have safety over there [Ecuador]. I reported him, he was sentenced to 28 years but the one feeling unsafe is me,” Giler said.
Giler shared her story at a meeting with the Columbia Heights City Council where James presented the resolution.
Giler said she had a good job and life in Ecuador before being forced to flee; in the U.S. she works in housekeeping.
TPS could grant Giler a work permit and, with that, the possibility of a better job.
“Of course, I’d want a work permit to be able to better my situation because there’s been a lot of job opportunities but without a work permit I can’t [take them],” Giler said.
It could also allow her to reconnect with the children she left in Ecuador. Giler said her goal is to be reunited with them in the U.S.
“What I want is for my children to be safe,” Giler said. “Especially my daughter.”
Claudia Lainez, director of COPAL’s worker center, said the initiative to push TPS resolutions at the city level started following a sudden increase in Ecuadorians at the worker center. Lainez herself has been a TPS recipient from El Salvador since 2001.
Lainez said COPAL is also pushing for similar resolutions in Richfield and Bloomington. COPAL also has offices in Mankato and Rochester and may consider pushing initiatives there, too.
“Even though this is a temporary protection status, it will help a lot of people that are in the United States seeking some relief,” Lainez said. “This will benefit them but also the economy, especially in Minnesota, where we have a shortage of employees. We have people here that are looking for jobs, but they don’t have the proper documents to be able to do that.”
Lainez also raised concerns about scams pushing Ecuadorians to apply for TPS for a fee. The publicity around the resolutions helps to bring correct information to Ecuadorian residents by clarifying that TPS is not currently active for them.
Abdihamid Badri is the aide for St. Paul Council Vice President Hwa Jeong Kim, who advocated for TPS there. Badri said the City Council saw the need for TPS as a workers rights issue.
“This has left them susceptible to labor violations and wage theft that make them vulnerable,” Badri said. “In St. Paul in particular, we have really strong protections for workers. Migrants, particularly undocumented migrants, might not have the ability to have that protection.”
Some of the newer immigrants coming from Ecuador, like Giler, have limited options when it comes to work.
Many have taken to the streets to sell fruit, such as mangos and watermelon, as is customary in many Latin American countries.
Due to the rise in street vendors, Minneapolis Council Member Jason Chavez is trying to pass an ordinance to establish a street vending program.
U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar authored a bill that would authorize TPS for migrants from Ecuador, but the bill has been stalled by Republicans in the House. Omar told Sahan Journal in a statement that TPS is crucial to provide short-term stability and support for Ecuadorians in the United States.
“As our community welcomes new Ecuadorian neighbors, we should ensure they have the resources they need to succeed. What I’ve heard repeatedly is that folks want to be able to earn a living and contribute positively to our society and economy,” Omar said in the statement. “I will continue to fight to ensure they have the resources to do just that.”
The number of asylum cases in Minnesota’s immigration court for people from Ecuador surged by 900% in the last five years. Asylum seekers from Ecuador are coming to the United States due to violence, discrimination, economic and political conditions back home. Last year, 116,000 migrants from Ecuador crossed the U.S.-Mexico border out of a total 2.5 million Southern border crossings, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The Department of Homeland Security designates which countries are eligible for TPS. For example, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan, Cameroon, and Ukraine are a few of the 16 countries currently designated for TPS.
The department also has the power to extend protections for TPS recipients. Most recently, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas extended TPS for Ethiopian recipients for an additional 18 months, through December 2025.
In some cases, TPS for some countries is extended so many times that recipients are left to re-apply every year — sometimes for decades. TPS is not meant to be permanent immigration relief, and does not offer a pathway to citizenship.
