Congresswoman Stands Firm With ‘Haitian Neighbours’ Following Termination of TPS for Haiti
NEW YORK, New York – As the clock runs out on Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for nearly 350,000 Haitians living in the United States, Caribbean-American Democratic Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke says she is standing firm with her “Haitian neighbours”.
Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke“As TPS for Haiti reaches its premature end and the latest chapter in Donald Trump’s cruel crusade against immigrant Americans begins, I stand with the nearly 350,000 Haitian nationals across the United States who we have come to call our friends, neighbors, and loved ones,” Clarke the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, who co-chairs the US House of Representatives’ Haiti Caucus and Caribbean Caucus, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).
“Since the instant they first joined our communities, Haitian TPS holders have asked only how they might contribute to them,” added Clarke, representative for the predominantly Caribbean 9th Congressional District in Brooklyn and chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.
“Despite the hardships in their home nation weighing on their hearts, they have never stopped embodying everything decent Americans should strive to be. I thank them for all they have given to us – and I mourn for all that may be taken from them.
“This dark day never would have arrived under a moral administration; and yet, it could only have ever been an inevitability under Donald Trump’s. And that is because the bigotry that blinds this president’s every action has ensured he will not rest until the American Dream is no more than a distant memory.”
Clarke noted that Trump’s “hired goons” within the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency and the umbrella Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are “mobilising to terrorise our neighbours and tear apart their families.
“They hope to spread fear far and wide throughout our communities until their distorted vision for America is all there is to see,” she said, noting that in the in the face of such “un-American injustice, we will not yield.
“To our impacted Haitian neighbours, I urge you to remember your inalienable rights, which no president, nor court, nor masked thug can strip from you. I, and my like-minded colleagues on both sides of the aisle, will continue to fight for your families.
“We will continue to advocate for our legislation to restore your rightful status and ensure you stay precisely where you belong – in the communities you have only made better across your years as our neighbours, and we will continue the work of building a nation that deserves you, and earns your forgiveness.”
Clarke said that Trump may have broken the promise of America, “but we will not rest until it is made whole again”.
Last week, New York Attorney General Letitia James joined a coalition of 18 other attorneys general in urging the US Congress to extend TPS for Haitians as well as pass legislation to allow for judicial oversight of TPS decisions “to ensure TPS holders are not subject to illegal deportations”.
In June, the US Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration could move forward with stripping TPS from hundreds of thousands of Haitian and Syrian immigrants.
The attorneys general said the decision threatens the Haitians who have spent years living, working and raising their families in the US, particularly in New York, which is home to one of the nation’s largest Haitian communities.
They said the Supreme Court’s decision also makes it “significantly more difficult to challenge TPS terminations in court, threatening these protections for other vulnerable immigrants nationwide”.
James said the US has a long history of providing a safe haven to those who flee armed conflict, natural disasters and repressive conditions, and that Haitian immigrants were granted TPS protection in 2010 after a deadly earthquake.
She said these protections have been extended over the last 16 years as the country faced additional natural disasters, political turmoil and public health outbreaks.
