July 31, 2025
Dear members of Nebraska’s Congressional delegation,
We write with urgency after the recent new announcement to end work authorization for longstanding Nebraska families and employees who have been a valuable part of local communities for 20 and 30 years. The termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for community members from Honduras and Nicaragua – without first creating any way to apply for other status – will disrupt Nebraska workplaces, separate Nebraska families, and cause ripple effects harming local communities.
As you know, we have been seeing a worrisome trend of ending work authorization and immigration processes that previously existed for immigrant neighbors, friends, family, and employees. This latest announcement would abruptly terminate authorization for longtime community members – who contribute important work in Nebraska’s health care systems, agriculture and food processing, school systems, and more. More than two thousand Nebraska community members originally came with Temporary Protected Status but have now lived here for decades and become an important part of local communities and families. Many are also parents of Nebraska’s next generation – students who grew up in local communities, are studying in college, or have just started their own careers and families.
As the Nebraska Alliance for Thriving Communities has described, we were already at a pain point from both a workforce and family/community perspective. The Nebraska Chamber of Commerce and Industry estimates there are approximately 50,000 unfilled jobs in Nebraska. Our existing workforce is strained beyond capacity for the systems and services Nebraskans rely on, and these recent announcements will increase that strain and instability substantially. We cannot afford to lose longtime community members. But there are solutions.
One immediate small step that would create stability for longtime community members with Temporary Protected Status and DACA is the bipartisan Dream & Promise Act. We urge you to cosponsor the bipartisan Dream & Promise Act (H.R.1589), and work proactively with colleagues to move it forward without delay. This legislation (first introduced in 2001 and pending for 24 years) would accomplish long-needed stability for Nebraska DACA and TPS community members – who grew up in local communities and/or who have lived here for many years, contributing important skills and talents as local healthcare professionals, ranchers and livestock producers, care givers, teachers, small business owners, and in construction trades and many other roles – as well as stability for Nebraska employers and the community systems we all rely on.
Our more than 70 Nebraska organizations across the state and across sectors – representing hundreds more individual organizations and small businesses, and tens of thousands of people – have come together around the urgent need for positive and updated immigration solutions for strong Nebraska communities, families, workforce needs, and our future. We represent health care, agriculture, aging care, education, hospitality, construction, business, labor, faith, family, and community perspectives. Through hundreds of conversations over more than a year, we have worked together to identify positive policies that would serve the best interest of Nebraska communities.
The Dream & Promise Act is a positive solution that fits solidly within the policies we have together identified that would be in the best interest of Nebraska’s communities and future. (See Nebraska Alliance for Thriving Communities: Stories of Local Impact, Backgrounder, Short Summary, and Policy Vision.)
We can’t afford to lose local talent and neighbors who have long been part of the fabric of local families and communities, and we urgently need to recruit additional skills, talents, workforce, and families for the future of Nebraska communities. We look forward to your action on this urgent matter.
