Miami, FL – The Trump administration announced yesterday that Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian immigrants will end in July 2019. This decision affects more than 50,000 Haitian immigrants, including thousands of Floridians, who fled their country after a catastrophic 2010 earthquake.
Prior to this announcement, humanitarian groups and legislators in Florida and across the country have called on the administration to extend TPS for a minimum of eighteen to twenty-four months.
Responding to the termination, ACLU of Florida Deputy Director Melba Pearson stated:
“The termination of TPS for Haitian families is unequivocally cruel. It will deport people who are integral parts of our communities and break up families who have made the United States their home, after theirs was devastated by the catastrophic 2010 earthquake, followed by severe health epidemics, and Hurricane Matthew in 2016 which created nearly $3 billion in damage. Now, Haiti is in the process of recovering from Hurricanes Maria and Irma which hit the country earlier this year, and have further displaced thousands of people.
The Trump administration and the Department of Homeland Security have prioritized their anti-immigrant agenda over the facts, and it has real and devastating consequences for the more than 50,000 Haitians who will be affected by this hasty and unnecessary decision. Following the termination of TPS for Nicaraguans and Sudanese immigrants, this cruel decision further highlights the Trump administration’s nativist agenda that we have seen playing out over the last few months.
There is bipartisan support in Congress to create a solution for Haitians with TPS and it’s time that our members pass legislation that creates a path to citizenship for TPS recipients.“