Florida Republican opposes end of Haitian protections – Florida
(The Center Square) – Florida Rep. Carlos Gimenez says it would be a “huge mistake” to deport Haitians who have been living in the U.S. under Temporary Protected Status, or TPS.
A recent Supreme Court ruling allows the Trump Administration to continue in its plan to end TPS designation for Haitians.
Public notice was first given in November that Haiti’s TPS designation would be terminated. Five Haitians then sued, claiming the decision to strip Haiti’s TPS designation was race-based and would violate their constitutional right to equal protection.
The Supreme Court held that the TPS statute bars judicial review of non-constitutional claims and that the defendants did not offer a sound argument to overcome the judicial review bar.
“Ironically, respondents themselves offer a race-neutral explanation for the Government’s action: namely, that the current administration, which has terminated every TPS designation that has come up for renewal, simply opposes the TPS program as it has been implemented in the past,” wrote Justice Samuel Alito in the ruling.
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Florida is home to the largest number of Haitians in the U.S., according to the World Population Review. More than 487,000 Haitians currently reside in Florida, making up about 2.15% of the state’s population.
“Haiti today is overrun by violent gangs. It is neither safe nor humane to force our neighbors back into those conditions,” Gimenez wrote on X over the weekend. “Providing Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is not just sound policy – it’s the right thing to do.”
Haiti first received its TPS designation in 2010 after a 7-magnitude earthquake killed an estimated 220,000 people, destroyed or severely damaged over 293,000 homes and impacted 3.5 million people, according to the Disaster Emergency Committee.
The damage was so extensive that only 20% of the schools in Port-au-Prince, where the earthquake struck, were left standing along with only 40% of the government and administrative buildings.
Today, Haitian TPS holders contribute an estimated $5.9 billion to the U.S. economy, according to the Haitian Bridge Alliance.
“We cannot force people to return to a burning home. Ending TPS would force families into impossible choices, push U.S. citizen children into poverty and without parents, and send people back to conditions that clearly violate both the law and basic human dignity,” said Executive Director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance Guerline Jozef. “The data makes clear what our communities have long known: protecting TPS is not only the lawful decision—it is the moral and economic one.”