The Elephant in the room: Cameroonians’ Love for Trump unreciprocated as he ends TPS

By Hans Ngala

In about two months, nearly 8,000 Cameroonians who are currently in the US on Temporary Protected Status (TPS) are likely to be deported to Cameroon, except for those undergoing asylum cases or have spousal processes to complete their marriage. The Trump government in April announced that they would not be extending TPS for Cameroonians beyond June 4 which is the date that was given by the Biden administration for the next TPS extensions for Cameroonians.
The whole issue around TPS is a curiously interesting one: Cameroonians got TPS thanks to the Biden administration, but those same Cameroonians (or at least, most of them), turned around and insulted President Biden. Most hated Biden, not because Biden had done anything wrong to them, but simply because Biden and his party, the Democratic Party, advocated for gay rights, something of a taboo to the average Cameroonian. Cameroonians forgot that Biden’s party is also the same party that advocates for immigrants’ rights, including immigrants from Cameroon. They chose to voice their support for Donald Trump instead on the single basis that Trump calls himself a “Christian” and had sworn to stop everything gay or LGBTQ.
Cameroonians were more excited by this announcement, even though the LGBTQ movement was not stopping or interrupting their lives in any way. At the same time, Cameroonians in the US chose not to read the handwriting on the wall when Trump was blaming migrants from Haiti for allegedly eating cats and dogs – a claim that his own Vice President, J.D. Vance later admitted was a lie which he (Vance) had made up. Trump was also blaming immigrants for bringing crime and drugs into the US and if our fellow Cameroonians were wise enough to discern the subtext of the message, they would have realized that they too were not safe.
They thought that they were exempt. That Trump would somehow only target Haitians and Mexicans. They were dead wrong. It brings to mind the quote by German theologian Martin Niemöller in which he said:
First, they came for the Communists (or Haitians in this case)
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist (or a Haitian)
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me

President Biden made sure that Cameroonians had TPS and work status to support themselves and their families and if Biden could have stood for a third term, he would have extended TPS for Cameroonians even further, yet the same Cameroonians who benefitted from Biden’s kindheartedness, were quick to sing the praises of Donald Trump, the same man who is now telling them categorically that they will be deported to their home country of Cameroon.
This is a quick reminder for Cameroonians to realize that the US is not Cameroon and we will have to face a more liberal society once we are out of Cameroon. Gay rights may not be an issue for us in Cameroon, but in the US, their people have decided that they are. Gay rights and immigrants’ rights are greatly supported by the Democrats in the US. Cameroonians are largely anti-abortion but at the same time, the Republican party which espouses anti-abortion views, also espouses anti-immigrant views, so Cameroonians in the US will have to choose whether they want to be anti-abortion and still be deported back to Cameroon or whether they want to be for gay rights and at least get to keep their TPS status. The truth is that some kind of compromise has to be made.
Cameroonians who have been enjoying TPS status under Biden, the same Biden that most of them have been insulting, will now find out the hard way that someone being gay or choosing to go for an abortion is not your business. Your business is to live your life and preach the Gospel, and leave the rest to God. Telling Trump how much you love him will not make him treat you nicely. Many Latinos also voiced support for him and voted him in, but he has not spared them either. He is deporting many Latinos back to South and Central America, so this is a wake-up call for Cameroonians in the US.
We can only hope that the US Congress will push for some kind of intervention that will keep our Cameroonian brethren in the US from being deported to Cameroon, where the very real threat of arrest or killing will face some of them if they returned, especially to the NW and SW regions.