美国国家公共电台 NPR Ending Temporary Protection For Foreign Workers Could Hurt U.S. Rebuilding Efforts

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

More than 300,000 people live and work under what is known as Temporary Protected Status. This is status granted to those whose home countries face war or disaster. The Trump¹ administration has been eliminating some of these protections, meaning many could face deportation² when their status expires. As NPR's Yuki Noguchi reports, this could have an impact on an already short-staffed construction industry.

YUKI NOGUCHI, BYLINE³: When Pedro Serritos was a young man, he left the poverty and aftermath of civil war in El Salvador to settle in Houston. Nearly 20 years later, he's a construction supervisor⁴ with a mortgage, a wife and three children. Because of his Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, he's worked legally for more than 16 years.

PEDRO SERRITOS: We’re paying the house, we’re kind of established here right now, but if we lose status, that's - you know, I’m going to lose my job.

NOGUCHI: Serritos' wife, a restaurant worker, is also in limbo⁵ as one of 57,000 Hondurans who may also lose their status. He says his wife worries. He tries to avoid thinking about it.

SERRITOS: You know, I don't want to get depressed⁶.

NOGUCHI: For decades, bipartisan White House administrations routinely renewed TPS status. But last month, the Trump administration lifted protections for about 53,000 workers from Haiti and Nicaragua. It will decide the fate of many more workers early next year. This is a big deal for the construction industry, which stands to lose 50,000 workers in an already tight labor⁷ market. The Chamber⁸ of Commerce and the National Association of Home Builders, among others, have lobbied to keep the workers, many of whom work in Texas, Florida and California, which are rebuilding after hurricanes and wildfires. Royce Murray is policy director for the American Immigration Council.

ROYCE MURRAY: You know, I have worked on TPS issues for a long time, and I have never known industry to come out in support of TPS workers really in these kind of numbers ever before.

NOGUCHI: Alex Nowrasteh is immigration policy analyst⁹ for the libertarian Cato Institute.

ALEX NOWRASTEH: There's no good economic justification¹⁰ for ending TPS. These workers are not competing with very many Americans in the labor force. The economy is growing very rapidly in the United States. American firms and consumers want to employ these folks.

NOGUCHI: Nowrasteh says forcing workers to sell their homes or work underground would have knock-on business impacts. He also notes TPS workers pay taxes but aren't eligible¹¹ for welfare and food stamps.

NOWRASTEH: So they're leaving, and taking their production with them, taking their output with them, taking their work with them is a total net loss. And there is no kind of savings¹² on the taxpayer¹³ side.

NOGUCHI: He agrees with liberal-leaning think tank Center for American Progress, which estimates ending TPS would mean losing $164 billion in economic growth over a decade. Mike Holland is chief operating officer for Marek, a big construction firm in Houston. Pedro Serritos is one of 30 Marek workers with protected status.

MIKE HOLLAND: You know, as I looked at the list, I was shocked. Well, what happens if Pedro loses his status? And the truth is we both get hammered. I mean, the pipeline¹⁴ is pinched, and there's really just not access to more labor.

NOGUCHI: Marek plays by the rules and verifies its employees' legal status. He says ending the status will benefit companies who don't.

HOLLAND: What happens is we lose a valued resource, struggle to meet the expectations of our clients and then feed a resource to a competitor who will beat us with our own people and doing it illegitimately. It's really not cool.

NOGUCHI: The administration faces a deadline on extending TPS protections for 200,000 Salvadorans January 8.

Yuki Noguchi, NPR News, Washington.

(SOUNDBITE OF CAVES OF STEEL'S "TRANSVERSE")

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 deportation   

n.驱逐，放逐

参考例句：

• The government issued a deportation order against the four men.政府发出了对那4名男子的驱逐令。
• Years ago convicted criminals in England could face deportation to Australia.很多年以前，英国已定罪的犯人可能被驱逐到澳大利亚。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 supervisor   

n.监督人，管理人，检查员，督学，主管，导师

参考例句：

• Between you and me I think that new supervisor is a twit.我们私下说，我认为新来的主管人是一个傻瓜。
• He said I was too flighty to be a good supervisor.他说我太轻浮不能成为一名好的管理员。

5 limbo   

n.地狱的边缘；监狱

参考例句：

• His life seemed stuck in limbo and he could not go forward and he could not go back.他的生活好像陷入了不知所措的境地，进退两难。
• I didn't know whether my family was alive or dead.I felt as if I was in limbo.我不知道家人是生是死，感觉自己茫然无措。

6 depressed   

adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的

参考例句：

• When he was depressed,he felt utterly divorced from reality.他心情沮丧时就感到完全脱离了现实。
• His mother was depressed by the sad news.这个坏消息使他的母亲意志消沉。

7 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

8 chamber   

n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所

参考例句：

• For many,the dentist's surgery remains a torture chamber.对许多人来说，牙医的治疗室一直是间受刑室。
• The chamber was ablaze with light.会议厅里灯火辉煌。

9 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

10 justification   

n.正当的理由；辩解的理由

参考例句：

• There's no justification for dividing the company into smaller units. 没有理由把公司划分成小单位。
• In the young there is a justification for this feeling. 在年轻人中有这种感觉是有理由的。

11 eligible   

adj.有条件被选中的；(尤指婚姻等)合适(意)的

参考例句：

• He is an eligible young man.他是一个合格的年轻人。
• Helen married an eligible bachelor.海伦嫁给了一个中意的单身汉。

12 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

13 taxpayer   

n.纳税人

参考例句：

• The new scheme will run off with a lot of the taxpayer's money.这项新计划将用去纳税人许多钱。
• The taxpayer are unfavourably disposed towards the recent tax increase.纳税者对最近的增加税收十分反感。

14 pipeline   

n.管道，管线

参考例句：

• The pipeline supplies Jordan with 15 per cent of its crude oil.该管道供给约旦15%的原油。
• A single pipeline serves all the houses with water.一条单管路给所有的房子供水。