A coalition of 50 organizations across the United States has launched a multi-day nationwide mobilization to demand the immediate restoration of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for more than 350,000 Haitians affected by the recent termination of the humanitarian U.S. visa program.
Running Thursday through Sunday, the "Days of Action to Restore Haiti TPS" features over 20 coordinated events spanning seven states, including California, Florida, New York, and Massachusetts. The effort brings together Haitian community organizations, immigrant-rights advocates, faith leaders, and allies. For a complete list of events, please click here.
Demonstrators and advocacy groups are calling on Congress and the executive branch to take immediate legislative and administrative action. Specifically, organizers are demanding that U.S. Senators co-sponsor S. 4814 — legislation that would extend Haitian TPS for three years. They also want the Department of Homeland Security to immediately halt arrests and deportations of former TPS holders and reinstate TPS for Haitians and other impacted populations facing unfair termination.
The Trump administration has been deporting hundreds of Haitian immigrants since winning a legal battle this summer to end TPS for about 350,000 Haitians, including 158,000 in Florida, most of whom live in South Florida.
READ MORE: Miami immigrant advocates want Sens. Moody and Scott to protect Haitian TPS holders from deportation
Organizers said that returning individuals to Haiti poses severe risks due to ongoing violence, widespread displacement, sexual violence, food insecurity, and limited healthcare access.
Indeed, gang violence already has displaced a record 1.5 million people across Haiti, where more than 3,100 people were reported killed from January to June and another 1,189 injured, according to U.N. statistics.
Beyond human safety, the termination of TPS has stripped recipients of work authorization, raising fears of detention and disruption across key American industries.
"A bi-partisan majority of the US House of Representatives, faith leaders of many confessions, unions, employers in healthcare, hospitality, agriculture and a majority of US voters all support a TPS extension to allow our Haitian neighbors to continue contributing to our communities as workers, students, congregants, volunteers and taxpayers," said Brian Concannon, Executive Director at the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, in a statement. "The Senate needs to join them by passing S. 4814."
Community leaders emphasize that passing the legislation is a matter of immediate urgency for both families and local economies.
"Senate Bill 4814 will extend Temporary Protected Status for Haitians," said Paul Namphy, lead organizer and Political Director at the Miami-based Family Action Network Movement (FANM).
"This is very urgent: the lives and families of an estimated 350,000 Haitians are at risk and the cancellation has already significantly disrupted critical economic sectors such as health, food processing, hospitality, and construction," he said in a statement.
Namphy said 42 members of the Republican-majority U.S. Senate have already sponsored or co-sponsored the measure.
"We are asking the 58 remaining Senators, [including Republican U.S. Senators Rick Scott and Ashley Moody in Florida], to join," he said.
Moody and Scott have expressed empathy toward Haitian TPS holders, but have not outlined any specific policy changes or indicated they support the legislation.
Moody told WPLG Local 10 in Miami in late July that she had met with Trump administration officials to talk about reviewing TPS holders' situations on a "case-by-case basis." Scott told ABC News in late July that Congress has "gotta fix the whole system of immigration to help them."
Congress created TPS in 1990 to prevent deportations to countries deemed dangerous, because of disasters, civil war or other violence or instability. It 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 homeland security secretary deems conditions unsafe for return.
