NORTH MIAMI, Fla. – Current and former elected leaders representing the Haitian-American community in Miami-Dade and Broward, along with faith leaders, activists, and lawyers, appealed to all Americans on Monday to rally for their neighbors and colleagues with Temporary Protected Status, or TPS.
Haitian TPS recipients learned Friday that the Trump administration stripped them of their deportation protections and work permits, encouraging them to self-deport by Sept. 2.
“My fellow Americans, we have lost our humanity,” former Broward Mayor Dale Holness said.
The U.S. designated Haiti for TPS on the basis of conditions in Haiti that prevented nationals from returning safely.
“They are taking people’s legal status, Temporary Protected Status, and making them illegal, so they can do a victory dance and say they are deporting illegal people,“ immigration attorney Ira Kurzban said. ”Typically, when TPS is terminated, the people of that country are given six months, 12 months, or 18 months.
“Never in the history of TPS have they said you only have 60 days to get out of the country. It is particularly egregious with Haitians because many Haitians have been here since 2010. We will continue to fight this in the courts.”
On Friday, a DHS spokesperson stated that “the environmental situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home.”
“Terminating TPS now is dangerous, reckless and it is inhumane,” Miami-Dade Commissioner Marleine Bastien said.
Frandley Julien, on the board of the Haitian Lawyers Association, said, “The assumption will be that they are coming with money from the United States, they will be kidnapped, raped and killed.”
Kurzean placed the blame on the Trump administration, saying he believes the decision is “based on racial discrimination.”
He took issue with a line in the DHS announcement that said the agency “further determined that permitting Haitian nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is contrary to the national interest of the United States.”
“We have a long history with this administration and Haitian community, Trump’s repeated racist statements against Haitians,” he said. “He said ‘they eat cats and dogs’, he even repeated that during the debate.”
The TPS announcement came just days after a U.S. embassy in Haiti security alert advised citizens to depart as soon as possible. Community members are urging South Floridians to contact Congress.
“It is time to put a stop to this because sending Haitians back to Haiti is going to be blood on your hands,” Tessa Petit, the executive director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition, said.
North Miami Vice Mayor Kassandra Timothe told South Florida’s Haitian immigrant community to have a plan in place and speak to legal experts.