Haitian Deportation & Family Separation Date: July 22, 2019
This weekend marked one year until Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haiti expires after the Trump Administration canceled the program earlier this year. In just one year — on July 22, 2019 — the Trump administration will begin deporting more than 50,000 Haitian immigrants legally working and raising families in the United States if Congress does not create a permanent legislative solution.
This will lead to more family separation as parents choose whether to leave their U.S. citizen children behind or subject them to deteriorating conditions in Haiti like violence, the aftermath of natural disasters and disease.
Pili Tobar, Managing Director of America’s Voice, said:
We have one year until 50,000 members of our communities could be deported to a country that is in absolutely no shape to assimilate them. Considering Haiti’s current conditions – compounded by continued social unrest and natural disasters -deporting Haitian TPS holders is cruel and inhumane. There is no reason Haitians, who have lived and worked in the U.S. legally – some for decades – should be forced back to a country they no longer call their own. For thousands of Haitians, the U.S. is the only home they know: their children were born here, and they work and pay taxes here. The deportations would ultimately lead to the separation of thousands of families and it would create a crisis in the U.S. beyond compare. Congress must act to save these families.
