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The Weekly Dispatch
Community-powered immigration news from the Bay Area.
Welcome to El Tímpano’s Weekly Dispatch. I’m Vanessa G. Sánchez, senior health equity reporter.
Strong winds and cold temperatures did not stop dozens of people, including L.A. band, Los Jornaleros del Norte, from gathering outside the Phillip Burton Federal Courthouse in downtown San Francisco this past Tuesday morning, where U.S. District Court Judge Trina Thompson heard a legal case that will determine whether around 60,000 U.S. residents from Honduras, Nicaragua, and Nepal can regain their Temporary Protected Status. The humanitarian protection known as TPS had allowed thousands of immigrants to stay and work in the country legally and avoid deportation, until the Trump administration moved to terminate it, and an appeals court judge upheld the decision in August.
Many of those in the crowd, dressed in signature cobalt-blue shirts to show their support for the National TPS Alliance, which advocates for TPS holders, demanded that Judge Thompson reinstate protections for thousands of families, including many Bay Area residents. One of those is Jhony Silva, a Hayward resident and Honduran native who I met outside the courthouse.
Silva told me he had TPS for more than two decades before it was terminated in September by the federal government. The protection had allowed him to legally work as a nursing assistant at Stanford University Medical Center, caring for patients in the Cardiac Unit.
Silva moved from Honduras to the U.S. in 1998, when he was just three years old, after hurricane Mitch devastated the region that same year. The Bay Area is the only home he knows, he said, and he’s raising his 9-year-old son, who is a U.S. citizen, here.
“My whole life is here,” Silva told me.
Tuesday’s hearing was the latest chapter in a series of legal battles that began in February, when the Department of Homeland Security’s Secretary Kristi Noem terminated TPS for more than 352,000 Venezuelans, and in July, for almost 350,000 Haitians, according to the National Immigration Forum. Although litigation is still pending, the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit allowed DHS to, for now, end TPS for Venezuela, Honduras, Nicaragua and Nepal, leaving thousands effectively in limbo.
Temporary Protected Status has existed since 1990, when Congress created it as a safeguard against deportation for people from countries suffering ongoing armed conflict, environmental disasters, and other extraordinary conditions. As of March 2025, more than 1.2 million people from 17 countries have TPS and live legally in the U.S.
Advocates say the stakes of this week’s case extend far beyond the three nationalities involved, and they could set a precedent that could affect other pending lawsuits.
“This is a step forward in this litigation against the Trump administration to make sure that we can continue to have TPS protections for our communities,” said Martha Arévalo, Executive Director of the Central American Resource Center in Los Angeles, who traveled to attend the hearing.
In September, Silva officially lost his status, and with it, his job at the hospital and health insurance for him and his son. He also had to abandon plans to attend nursing school because he could no longer afford tuition. Today, he’s in legal limbo and, for the first time in nearly 30 years, living like someone who is undocumented because he no longer has permission to work, and the federal government no longer considers him a legal resident.
“The government is making it a problem for me even though I’ve been here almost 30 years, and somehow that’s still not good enough,” Silva told me. “All I want to do is get back to my life, go back to the hospital, get back to school.”
When they heard about his case, The National TPS Alliance and the American Civil Liberties Union invited Silva to be a plaintiff in their lawsuit, National TPS Alliance v. Noem, to challenge the Trump administration’s decision, which they say was unlawful. “I felt honored to be chosen,” he said. “It feels really nice to be heard and understood.”
Attorneys for the ACLU representing Silva and others say that DHS failed to rely on an objective view of country conditions, as the law requires, and relied instead on political bias.
“They cherry picked facts to support their desired outcome of ending TPS as part of the Trump administration’s systemic attempt to de-document lawful immigrants,” said Amanda Young, an ACLU attorney and a member of the legal team representing TPS holders.
It’s still unclear how soon a final decision in the case will be made, and we know that next year TPS holders from other countries, including Haiti, could also lose their legal protections. I’ll continue to follow this issue closely, with a special focus on how losing legal status affects people’s health and well-being.
If you or someone you know has lost medical insurance, or access to food or housing benefits because of changes to TPS, asylum applications, or humanitarian parole, I’d love to connect with you. You can contact me at vsanchez@eltimpano.org or through Signal at 510-919-8593.
— Vanessa G. Sánchez
Ear to the Ground
El Tímpano’s text messaging (SMS) service reaches more than 6,000 Spanish-speaking immigrants across the Bay Area. Since the start of the second Trump administration, members of our SMS community have shared questions with us about where to find legal support. Here are a few of their responses:
¿Tienen ustedes números de teléfono de abogados confiables? ¿O dónde puedo conseguirlos? Gracias.
Do you have phone numbers for reliable lawyers? Or where can I find them? Thank you.
—Concord resident
Quería pedir ayuda legal; ya he tocado varias puertas y no me han podido ayudar. Si me pudieran ayudar, estaría muy agradecida. Tal vez tenga información de un abogado pro bono, gracias.
I’d like to ask for legal help. I’ve already knocked on several doors, but no one has been able to help me. I would be very grateful if you could help me. Perhaps you have information about a pro bono lawyer. Thank you.
—Oakland resident
¿Me podrías ayudar sobre dónde puedo ir para que me ayuden con mi solicitud de trabajo por asilo?
Could you help me find a place to get help with my asylum work authorization?
—Oakland resident
Resource of the Week
With Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in limbo, many are seeking legal support to help navigate an uncertain future for their immigration cases.
We created a resource guide featuring organizations that offer free or low-cost immigration legal aid in the Bay Area, as well as tips for how to prepare for your consultation.
Do you know someone who could benefit from this information? Share it with them and let them know they can text us any questions at (510) 800-8305.
From the El Tímpano Newsroom
This week we hear from Maria L., a local community health ambassador, or promotora, who shares her observations about the parallels between the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown and the immigration crackdown, and how an unexpected opportunity to speak up about her mental health led her to support others to do the same.
‘It’s like another pandemic’
Community health ambassador, Maria L., on the parallels between the COVID lockdown and the immigration crackdown, and how speaking up about her mental health led her to support others.
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