Washington, D.C. (February 12, 2019) – Today, LIUNA members from across the United States alongside fellow union members spoke with dozens of lawmakers to urge Congress to act now to provide permanent protections for recipients of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) .

In 2017 and 2018, the Department of Homeland Security terminated the TPS and DACA programs. Collectively, this will force out over one million people, who have built careers, started families, paid taxes including Social Security, and in many cases parents to U.S. citizen children.

“Dreamers and TPS recipients – including thousands of LIUNA members – have had their entire lives thrown into limbo. The human toll on families, who are being faced with separation from their children, careers, homes and communities – is absolutely unacceptable and un-American,” said LIUNA General President Terry O’Sullivan.

TPS is a legal status for workers from countries destabilized by war or natural disasters to live and work in the US. DACA is temporary protection from deportation for those who arrived in the US as children. Immigrants in these programs, many who have now been in the United States for decades, are crucial to the construction industry.

An estimated 30 percent of TPS holders and 11 percent of DACA holders work in the construction industry – literally building America. “The deportation of tens of thousands of skilled workers is bad for the construction industry and will only further exacerbate skills shortages reported by contractors in some areas of the country,” said O’Sullivan.

LIUNA calls on Congress to act immediately to pass legislation to fix TPS and avoid a humanitarian and economic disaster.

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The half-million members of LIUNA – the Laborers’ International Union of North America – are on the forefront of the construction industry, a powerhouse of workers who are proud to build America.