A South Florida congresswoman, along with her fellow Democrats, is pressing the Trump administration to reverse its decision to end Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, for hundreds of thousands of Haitian nationals in the U.S.
“Across the country, [Haitians with TPS] have strengthened our workforce, supporting our airports, hospitals, small businesses and schools,” U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Miramar, wrote in a letter signed by nearly three dozen Democratic colleagues, including U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, D-Weston, and U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami Gardens. Cherfilus-McCormick is the only Haitian-American in Congress.
The letter comes only weeks after the Trump administration threw out protections that shielded roughly half a million Haitians from deportation, meaning they will lose their temporary work permits and could be deported from the country by August. Roughly 350,000 Venezuelans also are losing their TPS status in the coming months.
The decision, announced last month, is part of a sweeping effort by the Trump administration to make good on campaign promises to carry out mass deportations and specifically to scale back the use of TPS, which was widely expanded under the Biden administration to cover about 1 million immigrants.
READ MORE: Trump throws out protections from deportation for 500,000 Haitians, thousands from South Florida
The TPS designation gives people legal authority to be in the country but doesn’t provide a long-term path to citizenship. They are reliant on the Department of Homeland Security for renewing their status when it expires. It has been in place for decades, allowing people already in the United States to stay and work legally if their homelands are deemed unsafe.
Critics say over time, renewal of status becomes automatic, regardless of what’s happening in the person’s home country.
In the letter, Cherfilus-McCormick and the others say the “abrupt removal of over 500,000 workers will have an immense and irreparable impact on businesses across the country and the economy at large,” noting that collectively they contribute annually $2.3 billion in federal taxes and $1.3 billion in state and local taxes.
Cherfilus-McCormick, earlier this week, co-sponsored the H.R. 1689, a bill that, if passed, would require the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security to designate TPS for Haitian nationals in the United States. It's highly unlikely to get through the Republican-majority House.
Congresswoman Wilson sent a similar letter on Feb. 25 to DHS officials, writing that its decision to end TPS for Haitians put hundreds of thousands in danger if they were to be deported to their homeland.
"Returning individuals to Haiti, where their safety and well-being are at serious risk, is not only unjust but also goes against our moral obligation to protect those in need," the letter said.
South Florida is home to the largest Haitian-American and Venezuelan-American communities in the nation.
The congressional effort is being waged at the same time immigrant advocates are challenging the Trump administration in federal court.
Three immigrant advocacy organizations and four immigrants this week filed a lawsuit in federal court in Massachusetts to block the termination of TPS. The plaintiffs, represented by Lawyers for Civil Rights, are Haitians Americans United, Venezuelan Association of Massachusetts, UndocuBlack Network and four immigrants who are not identified because of their fears of being deported.
Another lawsuit was filed in northern California last month by the National TPS Alliance and eight Venezuelan TPS holders. They claim Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem of "illegally revoking" TPS for Venezuelans.
A third lawsuit, filed Feb. 20, by CASA, a national immigrant advocacy organization, and "Make the Road New York," charges, in part, that administration officials acted with "racial animus" in terminating TPS for Venezuelans. The two groups are represented by the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs and attorney Cleary Gottlieb, brought the case DHS Secretary Noem in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.
