Whitehouse & Reed Call for Haitian TPS Extension

Senators label SCOTUS decision epically bad

Washington, D.C. - After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Trump Administration can move forward with ending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haiti, U.S. Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Jack Reed (D-RI) denounced the ruling as 'epically bad' and urged Congress to take corrective action.

Earlier this month, Whitehouse and Reed cosponsored legislation, S.4814, designating Haiti for Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which allows nationals from designated countries facing life-threatening conditions to temporarily live and work legally in the United States.

The Senators' legislation preserves TPS protections for more than 300,000 Haitian nationals, offering a critical lifeline as Haiti continues to confront political instability, widespread violence, and a serious humanitarian emergency. The bill would offer three years of legal protections to Haitians. It has already been cleared in the U.S. House of Representatives with bipartisan support on a vote of 224-204.

Today, Whitehouse and Reed issued the following joint statement:

"The U.S. Supreme Court got it wrong, but the U.S. Senate still has a chance to get it right and we urge swift, bipartisan action to extend TPS for people who are here legally, have already been vetted, are making a positive contributions in our community, and who would face unsafe, life-threatening conditions if they were expelled from the United States.

"The Supreme Court's 6-3 ruling that the Trump Administration can remove thousands of Haitians from TPS is deeply flawed and inexcusably provides judicial cover to outrageous behavior by the Trump Administration. Congress should do the right thing and restore the Haitian TPS designation on a bipartisan basis."

TPS guarantees that citizens of designated countries are protected from deportation and are given a pathway to work authorization. The United States government has repeatedly extended Haiti's TPS designation because the country is in crisis and remains too dangerous to permit safe return.

Former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem arbitrarily decided to terminate the TPS designation for Haiti and several other countries.

Conservative columnist George Will wrote a scathing piece in the Washington Post titled: The Supreme Court errs in this immigration ruling. Will wrote:

"The pungent odor of Kristi Noem lingers in Washington. Nearly four months after she was fired as homeland security secretary, a facet of her tenure produced a Supreme Court case, decided on Thursday.

"Her behavior egregiously violated the pertinent law, but was shielded from judicial rebuke by the court majority's too-mechanical textualism. And by a blinkered nonrecognition of the animus behind Noem's action."