CLARKE of New York. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to voice my outrage
over the administration's unconscionable decision to terminate Haiti's
temporary protected status designation on July 22, 2019. This decision, which came just days before Thanksgiving, will force
over 50,000 Haitians to return to a country that is still struggling to
recover from the devastating effects of the 2010 earthquake and reeling
from a cholera epidemic and food insecurity caused by Hurricane Matthew
that decimated Haiti's agricultural sector. Although Haiti has made extraordinary strides to overcome the impact
of the deadly earthquake and subsequent events, including the cholera
epidemic, food insecurity crisis, and Hurricanes Matthew, Irma, and
Maria, it has killed over 10,000 people and hampered the recovery
efforts. The devastation of these events should have made the decision to
redesignate Haiti for 18 months without setting an end date an easy
call, a no-brainer. However, last week's disastrous decision to
terminate Haiti's TPS status did not occur in a vacuum. In the past few weeks alone, this administration has also announced
its decision to terminate temporary protected status for Nicaragua and
Sudan. These actions demonstrate the administration's clear departure
from the bipartisan consensus that has always surrounded the TPS
program which exists to protect human life. Instead, this
administration has chosen to sow fear and division in our society to
distract from its failed policies that benefit the wealthy at the
expense of the vast majority of Americans. Faced with this clear and credible threat, we must come together to
pass bipartisan legislation that protects all TPS-eligible individuals
from being forced to return home to countries experiencing famine,
natural disaster, and outright civil war. That is why I have worked
with Representatives Ros-Lehtinen and Jayapal to introduce the
bipartisan ASPIRE-TPS Act, which would provide meaningful protections
to all TPS-eligible individuals. I urge my colleagues in this body to cosponsor our legislation. I
also urge House leadership to bring it to the floor for a vote as soon
as possible so that we can grant meaningful protection to the 300,000
TPS-eligible individuals at risk of being sent back to life-threatening
conditions abroad. Now is the time to act for the sake of 300,000 TPS-
eligible individuals and our standing in the world.
Keywords matched
temporary protected status TPS