Democratic U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz announced Friday she will introduce legislation in Congress that would strip the executive branch of authority for granting Temporary Protected Status to foreign-born residents from countries deemed dangerous due to disasters, civil war or other instability.
She announced the legislation, the TPS Review Act, during a news conference in Sunrise on Friday, the day after the Supreme Court voted 6-3 to allow the Trump administration to end legal protections for migrants fleeing violence and natural disaster in Haiti and Syria.
The high court's decision means the Department of Homeland Security can now end temporary protected status, a program that protects a total of 1.3 million people from 17 countries. DHS has the only authority to designate or end TPS for selected countries.
READ MORE: ‘Devastating consequences’: Haitian community, supporters sound alarm after Supreme Court TPS Ruling
"This fight is not over," Wasserman Schultz said in a statement. "When I return to Washington next week, I’ll introduce the TPS Review Act to restore checks and balances on the President’s handling of TPS, because nobody is above the law."
Her proposed legislation faces a difficult journey to passage in Washington, where Republicans control the House and Senate.
TPS, created by Congress in 1990, permits people to work legally in the U.S. but does not provide a path to citizenship. It can be renewed in increments of up to 18 months if the Department of Homeland Security secretary deems conditions unsafe for return.
The Biden administration roughly doubled the number of people covered by TPS. The Trump administration ended those protections, insisting it was meant to be temporary, the countries are now safe and that President Joe Biden’s administration expanded the destination and poorly vetted its recipients.
TPS beneficiaries have, by definition, been living in limbo and their futures have been especially precarious under President Donald Trump, but Thursday's Supreme Court ruling delivered what could be a crushing blow to living and working legally in the United States.
Wasserman Schultz warned of devastating humanitarian and economic consequences, particularly for South Florida’s Haitian community, the largest in the country.
At Friday's news conference, Wasserman Schultz was joined by local community leaders, including Denise Brown, President and CEO of LifeNet4Families, and Sandra Cherfrere, a detention attorney with Americans for Immigrant Justice.
