By LISA MASCARO, WASHINGTON (AP):- In a rare bipartisan moment, the House has agreed to consider legislation that would extend temporary protections for Haitian immigrants, pushing back against the Trump administration’s efforts to end the program.
The bill expected for a vote Thursday would require the Trump administration to extend for three years Temporary Protected Status for Haiti, which would allow hundreds of thousands of qualifying immigrants to remain in the U.S. without fear of deportation. House Democrats forced the bill forward Wednesday, joined by a small number of Republicans, over the objections of House Speaker Mike Johnson and GOP leadership.
Trump’s attempt to end the status for Haiti, Venezuela, Syria, and other nations in crisis “is cruel, unlawful, & life-threatening,” said Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., on social media. She is co-chair of the House Haiti Caucus and represents one of the largest Haitian communities in the country.
The congresswoman said deporting people back to Haiti would be a “death sentence” in a country ravaged by natural disaster and gang violence.
“This is common-sense policy that will save lives,” she said during Wednesday’s floor debate. “Congress can help. Congress can do the right thing.”
Congress races ahead of Supreme Court action
The outcome is the latest effort by House Democrats to maneuver past the Republican majority using a so-called discharge petition — once a rare tool that is being increasingly wielded to form bipartisan coalitions.
The effort to help the immigrants from Haiti comes as President Donald Trump’s administration is working to end Temporary Protected Status for several groups of immigrants, exposing them to the possibility of deportation.
In a matter of days, the Supreme Court is prepared to consider a fast-track case that would end the protected status for Haitian and Syrian immigrants in a challenge that is widely seen as threatening the broader program. The Trump administration filed emergency appeals after lower courts stopped the immediate end of the program for 350,000 people from Haiti and 6,000 people from Syria.
It’s part of the administration’s efforts to strip certain immigrant groups of legal status as the White House works to fulfill Trump’s campaign promise of conducting the largest mass deportation operation in history. Some 1.3 million people fleeing countries around the world have been granted temporary protected status.
Protections for Haitians were first granted in 2010 after a devastating earthquake that has displaced more than 1 million people, according to court documents. The protections have been extended multiple times as the country has experienced violence and upheaval.
The conservative-majority court has sided with the Trump administration on the issue before and allowed the end of temporary legal status for a total of 600,000 people from Venezuela while lawsuits play out, leaving them to face potential deportation.
Trump has described migrants from poorer countries in vulgar terms, and he has falsely accused Haitian migrants in Ohio of eating their neighbors’ cats and dogs.
Rep. Laura Gillen, D-N.Y., whose district includes Long Island’s Haitian community, said she promised constituents she would work to protect their status and introduced the legislation as soon as she took office last year.
“It’s cruel to expect Haitians to be forced to return to these deadly, dangerous conditions,” she told a press conference. “Human lives are at risk.”
Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., said the hundreds of thousands of Haitian status holders in the U.S. have become an inseparable part of the fabric of the nation.
“They have built businesses, built families, built up their communities,” she said during debate. She hoped the House action would become a “blaring beacon” against the Trump administration’s deportation policies.
Once rare, a discharge petition is becoming a powerful tool to force votes
The discharge petition process forces the bill to the House floor for consideration. It is the same tool bipartisan lawmakers used to pass legislation that required the Justice Department to release the files of the sex trafficking investigation of Jeffrey Epstein.
A discharge resolution needs majority support in the House, where Republicans hold slim control and are typically able to swat back such efforts from Democrats. But increasingly Democrats have pulled a few Republicans to their side.
Pressley’s effort won support from four Republicans on the initial petition, and several more on Wednesday’s vote to consider the measure.
If the bill is approved in the House, the measure would next go to the Senate, where the outcome is uncertain.