Bogotá, November 29 (EFE).- The Colombian government, through its embassy in Washington, has formally asked the United States to consider allowing Colombians in that country temporary immigration benefits.
“I would like to formally request that the United States Government consider the eligibility of temporary immigration benefits for Colombians in the country under the Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) humanitarian program,” said the letter sent by Colombia’s ambassador to the US, Luis. Gilberto Murillo, to the US Govt.
This program, which countries such as Venezuela and Liberia have benefited from, allows migrants from countries in conflict or natural disaster to stay in the United States, for which Ambassador Murillo points out in the letter that “for more than 60 years, hundreds of thousands of Colombians have been forced to leave their country due to conflict.” And thus they arrived in countries like the USA “unprotected and vulnerable”.
“Migration should be an option or a voluntary decision, not a life-or-death decision,” Murillo wrote in a letter to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, where he also speaks. On the current efforts of Gustavo Petro’s government to achieve “total peace”.
“That being said, our goal is for our people to be able to return to Colombia with dignity if they choose, or to adjust their immigration status to the US if they have the legal ability to do so,” the letter said.
For this reason, Colombia believes that President Joe Biden can provide “assistance for this temporary migration” and continue cooperation to address migration in the Western Hemisphere “from a humanitarian perspective.”
On October 3, during Blinken’s visit to Colombia, Petro asked him for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Colombians in the United States.
“I think TPS is necessary for Colombians,” Petro said at a news conference before officials from the United States, home to an estimated 2.6 million Colombians and where migrants from the Andean nation have been detained this year. substantially increased at the border
Source: El Diario
