A major Haitian immigration advocacy group in Miami has welcomed the United States’ extension of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for nationals from Haiti until October 4, 2021.
Last week, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it was also extending TPS, until the same time, for beneficiaries from El Salvador, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua and Sudan.
“This is wonderful news” said Marleine Bastien, the Haitian-born Executive Director of Family Action Network Movement (FANM). “Folks have been frantic and restless worrying about the January deadline.
“TPS holders and their families can rest easier after months of anguish,” she added.
But Bastien said, while her organization and Haitian TPS beneficiaries are relieved by the US government’s decision, “TPS recipients need permanent and not temporary protection.
“FANM will continue to organize our members and fight for those in the (US) Senate to pass The Dream and Promise Act,” she said. “We will not stop until we have a path to permanent residency for all TPS holders.
“We urge the Senate to act promptly to find a permanent solution for all TPS recipients and their families,” Bastien added.
Through the notice in the Federal Register, the Daily Journal of the United States Government, DHS said it was taking actions “to ensure its continued compliance with the preliminary injunction orders” of a number of US district courts.
Several immigrant advocacy groups had filed lawsuits in district courts challenging the Trump administration’s decision to terminate TPS for nationals from Haiti, El Salvador, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua and Sudan.
Last month, a Haitian refugee group in New York urged the incoming Joe Biden administration in the United States to rescind President Donald J. Trump’s “racist policies on immigration.” The Brooklyn-based Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees’s Temporary Protected Status Committee told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that it was collaborating with the Haitian National TPS Alliance in holding Biden to his promise of reversing Trump’s immigration policies.
The Haitian National TPS alliance recently conducted a “Road to Justice” bus tour to Brooklyn in its continuing push to reverse Trump’s “draconian immigration policies.”
New York boasts of the second-largest concentration of Haitians with TPS status in the United States, with Florida having the largest.
FANM said Florida is home to over 50,000 TPS holders, with 35,000 from Haiti, 9, 000 from Honduras and 6,000 from El Salvador.
The Haitian immigration advocacy group also said over 275,000 US-born children in America have parents from Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Nepal Sudan and El Salvador who have TPS status.
CMC
