Haitians are in Mortal Danger: Extending and Redesignating Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haiti is a Matter of Life and

FLORIDA — The current TPS designation for Haiti will expire on February 3, 2023. Recently, it was announced that TPS will be extended for countries named in Ramos v. Mayorkas. Although Haiti is one of those countries, the extension only applies to the 2011 designation, which is estimated to be only about 40,000 Haitians. There still needs to be an extension from the 2021 designation, in addition to a redesignation to ensure that those that came in after July 29, 2021, will not be at risk of deportation.

Following this extension and redesignation, the deportation of Haitians must stop. Haitians seeking safety, especially those currently in detention centers and those living in the U.S., must not be deported or expelled but be able to apply for this protection as we await for the Federal Register Notice to be issued. Deporting Haitians also puts the U.S. in direct conflict with U.S. law and the 1951 Refugee and 1984 Torture Conventions because they are knowingly being returned to likely persecution, torture, or other serious human rights violations. The U.N. Refugee Agency and U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights recently called on states not to repatriate people to Haiti given the severe and dire humanitarian, health, and security crisis there.

David Metellus, Director of Politics and Policy for the Florida Immigrant Coalition and son of Haitian immigrants stated, “Haitians living in the United States, currently eligible for TPS contribute $2.6 billion annually to our economy, and 81% of them are part of the American labor force, providing essential services at a time of worker shortages and high inflation. They have lived here for 15 years, on average, and have built families of almost 200,000 American citizens. Continuing to provide TPS
protections for Haitian nationals would ensure families remain together and continue building meaningful lives in our society. Moreover, redesignating Haiti for TPS would allow more
Haitians in the U.S. to enroll in the program, and contribute their skills and talents to the American workforce and communities around the country.”

Tessa Petit, Co-Executive Director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition who immigrated to Florida from Haiti comments,
“We can choose to be silent and blind to the brutality and horrors happening to our fellow Haitians in Haiti and beyond its borders. You do not have to be Haitian to be outraged by the
blatant Human Rights violations currently perpetrated by both the United States and the Dominican Republic on Haitian nationals.

On November 22 nd 2022, the United States coast guards returned 50 children, including babies, who had reached the United States shores, to a Haiti plagued by a rapidly spreading cholera. In the Dominican Republic, the violent attacks against Haitians have intensified, to include hateful bodily harm using whips and wooden sticks. All this added to the mass deportation of Haitians regardless of their immigration status, their safety, and in a discriminatory manner, using the color of their skin as a crime.

The United Nations requested from all ally countries to not return Haitians to Haiti right now due to health and safety concerns, and food depravation. That and other international accords are being ignored by the Biden Administration, depriving people of their legal right to apply for
asylum.

Purposely exposing someone to a deadly situation is an act of Human Rights violation, including ignoring abusive actions against a people that the US Government and its allies, and now the Biden Administration has rendered powerless. A country now on its knees due to US interference, demands accountability from President Biden and Vice-President Harris for the people of Haiti.

We demand:

1. Extend TPS for the 2021 Haiti TPS holders
2. Redesignate TPS for the new arrivals
3. Stop the return of Haitians to the now deadly Haiti, providing safe harbor to Haitians
4. Provide all possible support required and needed to stop the abuse of Haitians in the
   Dominican Republic”