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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Steven Forester, Immigration Policy Coordinator, Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), steveforester@aol.com, 786-877-6999
130 Organizations and 200 Individuals Urge Extension of Haiti’s TPS Designation, Joining Bipartisan Political and Extensive Editorial and Religious Support
(May 18, 2017) Today 330 organizations and persons serving the Haitian American community wrote President Trump, Homeland Security Secretary Kelly, and Secretary of State Tillerson urging DHS to extend Haiti’s Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for another 18 months.
“We concur with USCIS’s extremely detailed, 8-page single-spaced December 2016 review and assessment that the conditions warranting TPS for this group persist,” they wrote, noting bipartisan political and other support including powerful editorials by the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Miami Herald, Sun Sentinel, Palm Beach Post, and New York Daily News.
Incomplete earthquake recovery, an unchecked cholera epidemic introduced by UN peacekeepers in October 2010 that has claimed nearly a million victims, and last October’s devastating Hurricane Matthew make deporting 50,000 long-resident TPS recipients unsafe, they write, noting that Haiti can’t safely assimilate them or replace the crucial remittances they send back to as many as 500,000 family members.
Failing to extend TPS would be a disaster for families here and in Haiti, destabilizing, and bad for US national security, the leaders note.
Recently 416 faith-based organizations and leaders urged TPS extension, and on May 11 Republican U.S. Representative Dan Donovon, Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee’s Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness joined 18 U.S. Senators and 72 other U.S. Representatives of both parties who wrote earlier letters urging Haiti TPS extension; Donovan wrote that not doing so would be destabilizing and bad for the economy of both nations.
Today’s letter, sent on a unique letterhead including the logos of 38 endorsing organizations, notes that President Trump promised during the campaign to be the Haitian American community’s “biggest champion.” DHS Secretary Kelly must decide whether to extend Haiti’s TPS status, which Haiti’s government is urging, by May 23.