Bill for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) extension passes senate committee.
Daphne Campbell
Legislation sponsored by State Senator Daphne Campbell (D-Miami) which calls on the President of the United States, the Secretary of the United States Department of State, and the Secretary of the United States Department of Homeland Security to extend a program known as “Temporary Protected Status” (TPS) passed its first Florida Senate committee on Thursday.
Bill wins by 6- 2 vote
SM 442, which urges the extension of TPS for at least 18-months beyond the pending January 22, 2018 deportation deadline, won the backing of the Senate Military & Veterans Affairs Committee by a vote of 6-2. Currently, more than 58,000 Haitians who fled to Florida following natural and economic disasters in Haiti face imminent deportation if the deadline is not extended.
Extended Status Protection
As she marked the first committee passage of the TPS memorial, Senator Campbell also announced the filing of a separate measure calling on Congress to pass the Extending Status Protection for Eligible Refugees with Established Residency Act (ESPERER), a bi-partisan bill that would grant permanent legal status to more than 300,000 migrants from Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua and Salvador.
“These refugees fled to the United States following devastating crises in their own countries,” said Senator Campbell. “They have built successful, productive lives in Florida and are proof of the American Dream by any standard. They must not be forced to abandon everything they’ve accomplished because of some ill-conceived political agenda.”
ESPERER (“hope” in French) would allow migrants who received TPS protection and arrived in the U.S. prior to January 13, 2011 to adjust their status to legal permanent resident status. But only if Congress passes the bill.
Senator Campbell’s SM 888 urges Congress to quickly act on the measure, and eliminate the needless temporary extensions that have plagued the program and added to the uncertainty these individuals continue to face.
“They have lost their homes and ways of life once,” said Senator Campbell. “In a country that beckons refugees with open arms, they should not be forced to lose them again.”
