The House will break with Trump, voting against ending deportation protections for Haitians
Washington – The House is poised to introduce a rare reversal of President Trump’s immigration policies with a vote Thursday on a bill to stop the administration from temporarily ending deportation protections for Haitians living in the US.
Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts has led the effort to force a vote through a procedural tool known as an exemption petition. The measure — which has seen increasing success under a fractured House Republican majority — reached the threshold of 218 signatures it needed to override the GOP leadership and bring the measure down in late March.
Four Republicans – Reps. Maria Elvira Salazar of Florida, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Mike Lawler of New York and Don Bacon of Nebraska – joined all Democrats in supporting the expulsion request. In Wednesday’s procedural vote, it also received support from Reps. Nicole Malliotakis of New York, Carlos Gimenez of Florida and Kevin Kiley of California, allowing the bill to proceed to the House floor.
The basic bill, introduced last year by Democratic Rep. Laura Gillen of New York, would require the Department of Homeland Security to extend temporary protected status, or TPS, for Haitians until 2029. The bill was sponsored by Lawler.
The bill is similar to one introduced by Secretary of State Marco Rubio in 2019, when he was a Florida senator.
The vote comes as the Supreme Court set to scale in a legal battle over the Trump administration’s efforts to roll back temporary deportation protections for hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Haiti and Syria. A federal judge blocked the administration from revoking Haiti’s legal protections in February, one day before they were due to expire, and an appeals court panel refused to stay the lower court’s decision.
Congress created the temporary protected status program in 1990, which allows immigrants to live and work temporarily in the US without fear of deportation if the DHS determines that their home country is unsafe due to armed conflict, natural disasters or other extraordinary circumstances.
Haiti’s designation has been extended several times since 2010, when a devastating earthquake left more than 300,000 people dead. It was recently extended to August 2024 for 18 months by the Biden administration, citing economic, security, political and health problems plaguing the Caribbean country. More than 330,000 Haitians held this status as of last year, excluding green card holders.
The Trump administration wants to end protections for Haiti and several other countries, which require Haitians to leave the country unless they qualify for another legal immigration status. In a termination notice in November, the administration said the Haitian designation was “contrary to the national interest of the United States.”
“The United States cannot call for a bold change on the ground while showing doubts from afar. Our migration policy must be consistent with our vision of a secure, independent, and self-reliant Haitian foreign policy and not a country that Haitian citizens continue to leave in large numbers to seek opportunities in the United States,” the notice said, while also acknowledging “the current situation in Haiti is concerning.”
Advocates said Trump’s decision puts people’s lives at risk.
“The numbers couldn’t be higher,” Pressley said Wednesday at a press conference, calling the Trump administration’s decision “a death sentence.”
Gillen said “it is cruel to expect the Haitian people to be forced to return to these deadly and dangerous conditions.”
Lawler argued that “deporting people to Haiti in unsafe conditions while they are here legally, is wrong and unwise.”
“The State Department itself says that Haiti is not safe for Americans to go to, which is in complete contradiction to the Department of Homeland Security that says it is safe for Haitian immigrants to return,” said Lawler, a Republican whose New York state is one of the most contested seats in the House.
Pressley, who chairs the House Haiti Caucus, has been charging Republicans and Democrats for months to get on board, according to a senior aide to the congresswoman. The aide said Pressley’s tone emphasized the negative economic impact, especially on care workers, if more than 300,000 Haitians are forced to leave the US.
Presley told CBS News on Wednesday that he planned to continue negotiations with his Republican colleagues “right up to the minute” of the vote to try to secure their support. Some Republicans who did not sign the ouster petition expressed interest, but were not willing to cheat the leadership and put their names to them, the aide said.
Malliotakis, who did not sign the release petition but helped move it to the ground, said he heard from nursing homes in his district that they will lose nurses if the protections are not renewed.
“These are Haitian immigrants who work, pay taxes and contribute to our economy and fulfill the need for health care,” he said in a statement Thursday. “Taking away their status and deporting them to a vulnerable country would be callous and misleading.”
The legislation still needs to pass the Senate, and it is unclear how quickly the upper chamber will move on it. It also faces a veto from Mr. Trump, and a two-thirds majority is needed in both chambers to override his veto. The House was not wanting to take it out two vetoes earlier this year on legislation that passed unanimously.
