Official Congressional Record
Mr. President, let me begin by thanking Senator Ed Markey for your leadership, for your compassion, for your brilliance on this issue, as well as the great Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, who we are proud to have in the room today. You know, the State of Massachusetts is such a powerful State for freedom, justice, and liberty. You embody the ideals that we were sent here to fight for. And so I too am disappointed in our colleague's objection. I think what we proposed here that Congresswoman Pressley was able to pass in the House on a bipartisan--she got it done. She was doing what we need to get done here in the Senate. And what we wanted to do was clear and simple. We wanted a bill that would extend temporary protected status for Haitian immigrants. Why is that so important? TPS is a designation the Department of Homeland Security can give to a foreign country to indicate that it is unsafe for its citizens to return home. Home. They weren't fleeing here because they don't want to be home; it was unsafe. And there are many reasons that a country could receive this designation: Ongoing conflicts like a civil war or gang violence, a natural disaster like a hurricane or an earthquake, or temporary conditions like civil unrest. Unfortunately, at this time, Haiti meets all three requirements. Yet, the Trump administration, with the help of a Supreme Court decision, as well as colleagues here, has decided to terminate TPS status for Haiti. This policy decision is driven by cruelty and xenophobia, and it has real consequences. The decision to uproot your entire life and start again in a different country isn't something someone takes lightly. The reality for many Haitians is this: decades of corrupt governance was ended by a political assassination 5 years ago. The country has been in political turmoil ever since. Daily life is characterized by civil unrest, violence, and kidnappings by armed gangs. On top of that, hurricanes and earthquakes have left the country with limited access to healthcare, food, and public services. There are real, tangible reasons that 350,000 Haitians have fled to the United States for pursuit of a better life: real reasons, reasons that your own families could not withstand. In my home State of Delaware, this is deeply personal. Delaware is called the ``State of Neighbors,'' and over 5,000 of those neighbors are Haitian immigrants with TPS status. And at this moment, they are scared. They are terrified that they will lose their status and be unable to work and, ultimately, deported back to Haiti. Families are worried that they won't be able to make ends meet or, worse, be forcibly deported from a country they have grown to call home. These are real people with a real stake in the decisions that we make here in this body, people like Marie, who came to Delaware with her family when she was 12. Her memories of growing up are full of Sundays spent at church, going to mass in the morning, spending the day with her family at the pastor's house, and then going back to afternoon service. Now an adult, Marie became one of the very first Haitian Realtors in our State, where she helps families buy their first homes, establish roots, and get one step closer to the American dream. Or people like Anne--she received a deportation letter last April. Everyone in her family received the letter, including her 1-year-old niece--her 1-year-old niece. Anne and her family fled to Delaware after a gang war broke out in Haiti following the assassination of the President in 2021. Receiving deportation letters left them depressed and scared. They were sent into a tailspin and faced a devastating choice: Do you stay here illegally? They don't want to do that. Do you stay here illegally? Do you try to figure it out and go back to a country with danger and chaos with a small child or do you flee? As I said before, Delaware is a State of neighbors, and we are losing neighbors. Anne and her entire family have fled. Now, if the moral imperative doesn't convince you, I will try the economic. Hundreds of thousands of Haitian TPS recipients are in our workforce. These are good, hard-working people. They work in healthcare, in agriculture. They are small business owners, Realtors, pastors, and more. They are necessary contributors to our economy. They provide over $800 million in taxes every year and generate over $5.9 billion for our economy. The loss of the Haitian TPS workforce would impact and cause harm to multiple industries, from the ag sector to education, to healthcare, including nursing homes, hospitals, and senior centers. My office has already heard reports from private employers who are being forced to let these employees go, whose authorizations are tied to TPS. Today, we had a chance to set things right. We had a chance to extend these protections to our Haitian neighbors. We had a chance to do the right thing. But I am here to tell you, yes, elections have consequences, and people are watching. And we are not giving up. Thank you to all of the individuals who are supporting these families. Thank you to our staffs who are receiving the phone calls. Thank you to the pastors who are praying. Thank you to all who are fighting for our neighbors. As I said, we won't give up. I yield the floor.
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