This article originally published online at NC Newsline.
A popular Duke University bus driver at risk of losing his protected immigration status said Tuesday that he will visit U.S. Senator Ted Budd (R-N.C.) and state leaders next week to ask them to intervene on his behalf.
Luis Alonso Juárez, a Honduran, who is well-known across Duke’s campus for operating a “party bus,” made the announcement outside the Regulator Bookstore on Ninth Street surrounded by students, faculty and others who said he brought joy to their lives by playing lively music on his route.
A scheduled press conference on the Duke campus was cancelled and moved to the bookstore after Duke University officials threatened Juárez with disciplinary action if the press conference was held on campus, according to Siembra NC, a grassroots immigrant advocacy group.
Supporters were asked to ride Juárez’s bus this week in a show of solidarity. Juárez will travel to Raleigh on Sept. 4 to meet with Budd and the leaders of General Assembly.
Juárez was granted Temporary Protected Status in 1998, according to a press released shared by Siembra NC. That status will expire Sept. 8 due to a Trump administration order terminating TPS protection for Honduras.
Because Juárez entered the U.S. without inspection or authorization and is not married to a U.S. citizen, under current immigration law, he does not qualify for another form of protection like a work visa or green card.
Without protected status, Juárez, and as many as 51,000 other Hondurans across the country will be eligible for removal, according to Siembra NC.
“He’s [Juárez] been working at Duke for 19 years but because of these decisions made by the Trump administration, thousands of people are about to lose their protective status,” said Nikki Marin Baena, co-director at Siembra NC.
Speaking through an interpreter, Juárez said he wants to remain in the United States because he likes his “work as a bus driver.” The 54 year-old previously worked in the construction industry but said it is unrealistic at this point for someone his age to return to that kind of work.
“I’m all over the campus and they [students, faculty and colleagues], like my work and they want me to keep doing it,” Juárez said.
Immigration attorneys have advised Juárez that his only short-term path to retain a work permit would be for the Trump administration to grant an extension of protection from removal, much like his first term. In 2021, President Donald Trump issued a Deferred Enforced Departure designation for Venezuelans present in the U.S. on or before Jan. 20, 2021, which granted them 18 months of deferred removal and employment authorization. He has twice extended such protections for Liberians.
Andrew Willis Garcés, a senior strategist for Siembra NC, said the organization is unaware to what extent Duke has reached out to help Juárez or others who might be in a similar predicament.
“Right now, they’re [immigrants] about to just lose their paycheck, which could mean they lose their mortgages, could mean they lose all kinds of things and it doesn’t look to me like they [Duke leaders] have yet taken the step of trying to figure out how they can help these workers, even if they can’t help them with their legal status or their work permits, what else could they do?” Garcés said.
Juárez has become a popular figure on the Duke campus. He was profiled in the Duke Chronicle in February. And last month, 477 students, faculty and staff submitted letters of support for Juárez to Duke Visa Services, asking the university to take action on his behalf.
Several students showed up Tuesday to support Juárez.
Duke senior Joyce Thomas has been riding Juárez’s bus since she was freshman. Thomas said Juárez has helped build community at the university, and that he and other staff members are not replaceable.
“Without people like Luis, I would not feel how I do at Duke,” Thomas said.
Professor Katya Weslowksi, an anthropologist and dancer, said she met Juárez last spring after she began riding his bus. Weslowksi was taken by his cheerfulness and the “fabulous” music he plays, she said.
Weslowski worked on a plan to incorporate Juárez into her curriculum but the two couldn’t get together to pull it off, she said.
“This is an illustration about how the workers at Duke are not invisible,” Weslowski said. “They are not extracurricular. They are not doing work behind the scenes. They are integral to Duke education, to our students’ education.”
Members of the Union of Southern Service Workers also showed up to support Juárez.
“This is an attack on all workers,” said Mama Cookie, a community organizer and retired food service worker. “If we allow this to happen and not stand in unity with Luis [Juárez], we’re going to be in trouble.”
Nah’Shon Blount, a Duke housekeeper, noted that Juárez’s immigration issues come amid heavy layoffs at the university due to a Trump administration threat to reduce funding over race-related discrimination claims. U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. allege the university engaged in “the use of race preferences in Duke’s hiring, admissions, and scholarship decisions.”
“I would like Duke to stand up to their end of the bargain and actually take care of their workers and take care of the city that helped build them,” Blount said. “If you can’t serve your community or serve the state where you have an establishment, there’s no point in you being here in the first place.”
Durham City Councilwoman Javiera Caballero vowed the city will standby Juárez and other immigrants.
“We all have to work diligently right now to protect our workers in the city and at Duke and across the country. We are ready to fight and standup,” Caballero said. “It’s going to take every single one of us.”
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