Chris Van Hollen

Mr. President, Thanks · 38 wordsI want to thank my colleagues Senator Markey and Senator Blunt Rochester for bringing this motion to the floor. I do want to thank Congresswoman Pressley--who I know had to leave the floor--for her leadership in the House.Thanks Claims · 40 wordsAnd like my colleagues, I am extremely disappointed that Republican Senators today blocked our ability to move forward and have a vote on this matter and pass this very important matter, which is to extend temporary protected status for Haiti. Reasoning · 62 wordsAs my colleagues have said, temporary protected status--TPS--was established decades ago with bipartisan support because Congress understood then a very basic truth: When people cannot safely return to their countries of origin, we do not put their lives at risk by forcing them to go back. That is the essence of the protection in TPS, and that principle is worth defending today. Claims · 77 wordsFor years, hundreds of thousands of Haitians have lived and worked legally in the United States of America under TPS. They built their lives here. They have paid taxes here, including Social Security taxes. They started small businesses here. They are our neighbors, our friends, our colleagues. They are our community members. They are deeply rooted in communities all over the country, including in my State of Maryland. Some have lived here for decades--again, legally--with this status. Positioning · 59 wordsTo rip all of that away, while the danger in Haiti persists, is wrong and it is cruel. And it does not align with the values that the United States claims to stand for, and yet that is exactly what the Trump administration is doing. And, sadly, it is what our Republican Senate colleagues just did in their motion.Positioning Procedure · 15 wordsAnd I do want to underscore what Senator Blunt Rochester and Senator Markey have said.Procedure Promise · 29 wordsThey may be able to block it today in the U.S. Senate, but we will keep working on this matter because it is a matter of important American principles.Vague promise Claims · 113 wordsYou know, last year, the administration moved to terminate Haiti’s TPS designation, ¹and that action was challenged in court. And the Federal courts temporarily blocked that termination.² Then it went to the Supreme Court, and on a devastating 6-to-3 decision, the Supreme Court reversed the lower courts and sided with the Trump administration.³ It was another--in my view--very bad decision from this Supreme Court that will have very harmful consequences for the Haitian community but, really, for all of our communities because now TPS holders face imminent loss of their legal status and of their work authorizations, the latter of which is slated to happen as soon as the end of this week.⁴ Procedure · 23 wordsSo let’s be clear about what that means. Let’s just be clear about the harm that we are forcing these individuals to face.Procedure Claims · 62 wordsIt means hundreds of thousands of our community members who followed the rules, worked legally, paid taxes, and built lives in this country will lose their ability to work legally and be forced to return to a country where it is not safe to return. That is the reality right now.Unearned certainty Anyone following the situation in Haiti knows it remains very dangerous.Unearned certainty Procedure · 1 wordsIndeed, ProcedureClaims · 64 wordsas my colleagues have said, the State Department continues to warn Americans not to travel to Haiti because of crime, kidnapping, terrorism, unrest, ⁵and other factors. The country remains under a state of emergency, ⁶and the U.S. Government has extremely limited ability to provide any emergency assistance, even to our own citizens who are there now. And the humanitarian situation there continues to deteriorate. Reasoning · 43 wordsWhen you are evaluating whether it is safe to force anybody back to their country of origin, we are supposed to look at whether the situation is getting better or worse. It is getting worse over a long period of time in Haiti. Claims · 85 wordsWhile there are some small signs of hope right now, the reality is, it is a very, very dangerous place In fact, 1.5 million people have been displaced from their homes.⁷Unearned certainty More than half the population needs humanitarian assistance.⁸ More than 5.8 million people are expected to face hunger this year.⁹ Meanwhile, armed gangs continue to control large parts of Port-au-Prince and other parts of the country.¹⁰ A lot of these gangs are responsible for killings, kidnappings, sexual violence, and forced displacements of entire communities. Positioning · 126 wordsAnd yet, by the decision the Republican Senator took to the floor, blocking this action, they are forcing people who have been members of our community for a long time--again, working here legally--forcing them back into imminent danger and harm. You know, we shouldn’t be doing this, colleagues. We should not be forcing anybody back into a situation of imminent harm, especially people who have been here and working legally and playing by all of the rules. And now we are changing the rules on them midstream because what had been a bipartisan law of the temporary protected status program is now having the ``protected status’’ part of it ripped out by our colleagues. So this is really part of the Trump administration’s mass deportation strategy.PositioningLogical leap Claims · 63 wordsYou know, the President told Americans that they were going to go after the ``worst of the worst.’’ You know, we had a vote on this floor weeks back. I think it was a unanimous vote that, you know, folks who have committed crimes--people who are dangerous to our communities-- yes, the worst of the worst should be essentially held accountable and deported.¹¹ Positioning · 27 wordsBut folks under TPS? These are people who are working legally in our country. These are people paying taxes. These are not the worst of the worst.Positioning Claims · 23 wordsIn fact, they have to check in every single year and make sure that they continue to meet the requirements of the law. Positioning · 212 wordsAnd yet these are the people--these are the people--that the President and now our Republican colleagues seek to uproot and send into certain danger. Sadly, the Supreme Court--the Trump-stacked Supreme Court--went along with these decisions, but we have a chance in this body to fix that. And that was what we tried to do today with Senator Markey’s motion. Again, it was blocked by our Republican colleagues, but this will not be the end of this debate. It will not be the end of this discussion because the essence of TPS was, at least at one time in our country, a bipartisan effort. On a bipartisan basis, we agreed that it was wrong to send people back to their home country if they faced certain danger. And that is why we allowed these individuals to stay here. And many of them have made really successful lives here in our communities, working--again legally--paying taxes. And so it is a very sad day when what once was a bipartisan consensus to stand by important principles that had made this country stronger are shredded by this White House and where we now have a rubberstamped Congress to go along with the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda. So I regret the action that was taken today.Positioning Thanks · 17 wordsI, again, thank my colleague Senator Markey for his efforts, and we will keep at it together.ThanksVague promise Procedure · 13 wordsI yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Armstrong). The Senator from Iowa.Procedure