Utah Senate Minority Leader Luz Escamilla and House Minority Leader Angela Romero joined families, advocates, and community leaders at the Utah State Capitol today to call for urgent congressional action to protect Temporary Protected Status (TPS) as the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to hear a case that could reshape the program nationwide.
“Congress has the power to fix this, and they need to get off their hands and do it,” said Leader Romero. “This should not come down to a court decision when lawmakers have the authority to protect families and provide stability. Instead, we are watching inaction while millions of lives hang in the balance.”
The case, driven by efforts from the administration of Donald Trump, could strip legal protections from hundreds of thousands of TPS holders from countries experiencing crisis, including Haiti and Syria, and set a precedent impacting more than a million people across the country.
“Too often, this country ignores the role the United States has played in creating instability in many of the countries people are now fleeing,” Escamilla said. “Families from Haiti, Venezuela, El Salvador, and other nations are not leaving home because they want to. They are leaving because conditions have become unbearable, and many of those conditions have been shaped by decisions made far beyond their borders, including by our own nation. We cannot turn our backs now and pretend we have no responsibility.”
Escamilla reflected on a recent visit to Ellis Island, describing the emotional weight of standing in a place that symbolizes America’s promise to immigrants.
“You walk through those halls and feel the hope people carried with them,” she said. “You think about the words engraved at the Statue of Liberty, written by Emma Lazarus, welcoming those ‘yearning to breathe free.’ That promise is part of who we are. The question now is whether we are willing to live up to it.”
Both leaders underscored the deep ties TPS holders have to Utah communities.
“Senator Escamilla and I represent the most diverse districts in the state of Utah,” Romero said. “This impacts the people our children grew up with. This impacts our own families. We’ve been working on these issues since we were in college, and we’re still here working on these issues.”
“All of these families that we are now talking about here in Utah are families that we spend time with,” Escamilla said. “We go to church with them, we worship with them, our kids go to school with them… They’re not only an economic impact to us, they’re also a fabric of our state.”
Romero echoed that message, highlighting both the human and economic stakes.
“Our immigrant communities are the ones that keep this country alive,” she said. “They are working in our hospitals, our schools, and our small businesses. To destabilize their lives is to destabilize our communities.”
Both leaders pointed to what they described as a broader pattern of harmful rhetoric and policy targeting immigrant communities.
“There has been a targeted pattern by this administration that dehumanizes immigrants, especially black and brown communities. And that matters because it’s shaping policy,” Escamilla said. “We need to be honest about what is happening and respond with humanity and responsibility.”
Romero closed with a blunt assessment of the administration’s impact and a call for accountability.
“This administration is destroying our country,” Romero said. “Congress has the power to regulate what the president is doing, and you’re not doing it.”
Both leaders called for immediate congressional action and long-overdue immigration reform.
“This is about whether we’re willing to follow the law, as it’s written, and whether we continue to put pressure on Congress,” Escamilla said. “Utah is stronger because we have families that have come here seeking that refuge, and we should be very clear about where we stand.”
