Roughly 350,000 Haitian immigrants nationwide face the expiration of their legal right to live and work in the United States Monday, when a federal appeals court reprieve runs out and the case returns to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Miami-Dade County Commissioner Marleine Bastien and Mayor Daniella Levine Cava rallied against the termination of Temporary Protected Status at a Saturday rally in South Florida, warning that the end of TPS would devastate families and businesses across the region.
"If those thousands and thousands of TPS recipients are deported back to Haiti, they will return to a nation that is 10 times worse than when TPS was awarded in 2010," Bastien said at the rally, as reported by WSVN.
The consequences stretch across Miami-Dade and Broward counties, where many Aventura-area residents live and work alongside TPS holders. The Florida Immigrant Coalition estimates approximately 158,000 Haitian TPS holders live in Florida. They work in health care, construction and hospitality. Bastien said at a Thursday press conference in Little Haiti that 95% of Haitian TPS holders are employed and that together they contribute nearly $5.8 billion to the U.S. economy annually. A July 2 report by Human Rights Watch and the Sant La Haitian Neighborhood Center pegged the Florida-specific contribution at $2.6 billion per year.
Levine Cava, in a written statement released Saturday, called the termination "heartbreaking and unnecessary" and blamed congressional inaction, noting the House passed a bill but the Senate did not.
How the deadline arrived
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in late June that the Trump administration could terminate TPS for Haitians, finding that DHS decisions on the program are not subject to judicial review on nonconstitutional grounds. TPS had originally been set to expire Friday, July 25, but a three-judge D.C. Circuit panel issued a short-notice order Thursday blocking the termination until at least Monday.
The Trump administration had asked the court to lift a stay by U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes. The Justice Department argued in its filing that "each day the district court's unlawful decision remains in effect irreversibly blocks the Executive Branch."
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson defended the decision in a statement reported by The Guardian on Saturday, saying TPS "has been allowed to function as a de facto amnesty program despite Congress never intending it to be permanent."
Legislative stalemate
The House passed H.R. 1689 in April with bipartisan support, including votes from South Florida Republicans María Elvira Salazar, Mario Díaz-Balart and Carlos Giménez. The bill would extend Haitian TPS until 2029. But Thursday, Missouri Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt blocked a Senate unanimous-consent attempt by Democratic Sens. Ed Markey and Lisa Blunt Rochester, accusing Democrats of trying to make TPS permanent.
Bastien and Levine Cava told WSVN they had reached out to the offices of Florida Sens. Rick Scott and Ashley Moody about S. 4814 but had not heard back.
What happens next
The case returns to the D.C. Circuit Monday. Lawyers for Haitian TPS plaintiffs told Judge Reyes they were evaluating the Supreme Court's ruling and would inform her by Thursday, July 31, about filing an amended lawsuit.
Paul Namphy, political director of the Family Action Network Movement, urged the community at Saturday's rally to prepare for the worst while immigration attorneys advised TPS holders to review their cases for possible asylum, family-based status, or other relief.
Bastien and Levine Cava urged constituents to contact the offices of Sens. Scott and Moody to push for the Senate bill's passage.
