Official Congressional Record
Mr. President, I rise today to underscore the critical importance of maintaining temporary protected status, or TPS, for Haiti. TPS allows nationals from designated countries facing ongoing armed conflict, environmental disasters, or extraordinary conditions to live and to work legally in the United States until it is safe to return to their homeland. First of all, I would like to thank my colleague Lisa Blunt Rochester from Delaware for leading this effort in the U.S. Senate. Thank you. I want to thank the Senator from New York, Mr. Schumer, for his statement today, which is basically reflecting the views of millions of Americans who are outraged at what is transpiring and affecting dramatically the Haitian community in the United States. I would really like to thank Massachusetts Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley for leading the successful effort in the House of Representatives to extend Haiti's TPS designation. I am also thankful to Congresswoman Pressley for her partnership, not only today but in her yearslong fight to advocate for our Haitian-American communities. In January of this year, we cohosted a field hearing in Massachusetts to hear from Haitian TPS holders, business and union leaders, and advocates about the importance of Haiti TPS. And in April, alongside Senator Van Hollen and Congresswoman Wassermann Schultz, we led an amicus brief in the Supreme Court on behalf of 180 Members of Congress in support of Haiti and Syria TPS. But last month, the Supreme Court delivered a devastating ruling in the case. The far-right Justices green-lit the Trump administration's unlawful, racist termination of TPS for Haiti and for Syria. The Court failed a test of morality. It slammed the doors of justice in the face of more than a million TPS holders, including 45,000 Haitian TPS holders in Massachusetts. It is an outrage; it is a travesty. For years, Donald Trump has demonized and attacked Haitian TPS holders. Trump has spewed racist, cruel lies about Haitians. We know that Trump does not want to make America great again. Trump wants to make America hate again. That is what these policies represent--to make America White again. And to do so, he is terminating the critical TPS protections that nearly hundreds of thousands of Haitians rely on. The Trump administration plans to force Haitian TPS holders to return to dangerous and life-threatening conditions. But Haiti continues to confront overlapping crisis, political instability, widespread violence, and a humanitarian emergency that has strained every single facet of daily life. In the wake of Hurricane Matthew, in September of 2016, I traveled to Haiti to deliver relief goods and meet with aid providers, even amidst devastation. The resilience of the Haitian people was palpable. At the time, the country was still battling the cholera epidemic caused by the U.N. peacekeepers after the devastating 2010 earthquake that killed thousands and thousands and thousands of Haitians. Haiti faced this crisis without sufficient international support. And, ultimately, I led the effort to get the United Nations to apologize to Haiti for what the U.N. had done to that country. And, finally, the United Nations did that. I came away from that trip knowing that Haiti would continue to hurt and that the United States should do everything in its power to help the Haitian people. Sadly, Haiti is still hurting. Haiti's security crisis is eroding the promise and future of an entire nation. Armed groups now exert control over much of Port-au-Prince. Kidnappings, targeted violence, and blockades have made it difficult for people to reach hospitals, attend school, and access basic services. At the same time, natural disasters, including earthquakes, hurricanes, and recurrent flooding have further damaged infrastructure that was already stretched to its limits. Together, these forces have left millions without certainty or without security. It is clear that Haitian TPS holders cannot return home safely. And yet--and yet--the State Department currently advises American citizens against traveling to Haiti because of the dangers and instability. That is utter hypocrisy. You can't tell Americans it is too dangerous to go to Haiti and then say that you are going to tell 350,000 Haitians that they have got to go back to a place that is too dangerous for any American to go and visit. It is protected status. It is protecting them against that which is too dangerous. Instead of meeting this undeniable humanitarian catastrophe with compassion, the Trump administration has chosen to compound the trauma. And this brings us to the dangerous and politically cruel reality that Haitian TPS holders face today in our country. For families with children born here--American children--it may mean a choice no parent should ever be forced to make: tearing their family apart or taking a child who has never stepped foot outside of the United States into danger in a country that child has never lived in and that the State Department is telling every American is too dangerous to go to. But parents may have to take children into that situation. Imagine a mother or a father sitting at their kitchen table tonight, looking across at their child and trying to decide if that child has a better chance of survival returning to Haiti, a country consumed by violence, or staying in the United States, separated from the loving care of their parents. If we do not act, this is the brutal reality of family separation that will play out in thousands of homes across this country. Families are being forced to endure agonizing and impossible calculations. We cannot stand by while hundreds and thousands of Haitians who have lived and worked and built lives in the United States are suddenly staring into an abyss of uncertainty. What of the daily life for those who will remain? The moment these protections lapse, TPS holders--who have been here legally for years working, paying taxes, and raising families--will stare down the looming threat of detention and deportation. That is what the Trump administration wants: to give ICE agents more work to do on our streets, to give his private army the authority to arrest a million more people to meet racist, cruel quotas. And no one should have to live through that constant fear of a sudden knock on the door or the panic of a random traffic stop. To strip Haitians of their status of protection, which we have given them because of the catastrophic conditions that still exist in Haiti, is to strip them of their agency, of their safety, of their peace of mind. Haitian TPS holders are Massachusetts. They are the United States. They are hard working. They are kind. They are resilient. They are strong in the face adversity and deeply committed to the communities in which they live, whether it is Mattpan or Brockton or Malden. And the same thing is true for all across our country. A Haitian TPS holder is a friend and home-health aide who has taken care of grandma or grandpa for years. A Haitian TPS holder is a coworker and a construction worker that has helped build homes in our neighborhoods. A Haitian TPS holder is a neighbor and a small business owner on Blue Hill Avenue who helps support the livelihoods of others. Haitian TPS holders are essential workers. They are nurses. They are home health aides, educators, grocery store workers. They keep us safe. They keep us fed. They keep us healthy. They have followed the rules. They have committed no crimes at all, and yet they are now being told they are going to be sent home. And these are the same people who have made our seniors smile, that have been in homes all across our country, in homes taking care of our loved ones, in hospitals taking care of our loved ones. That is who they are. They have protected our babies. They soothe our sick. They are us. We have a moral duty to protect TPS holders and provide them with protections and a permanent pathway to citizenship. Let's help them make America home. For generations, Massachusetts has been shaped by our immigrant communities. It was one of our own, Congressman Joe Moakley, who served as one of the architects of the TPS statute and who understood both the moral clarity and the practical necessity of providing refuge in times of crisis. In defending his provision for TPS protection on the House of Representatives floor in 1990, Congressman Moakley emphasized our ``deep moral obligation'' to protect innocent victims fleeing violence abroad. His words remain as urgent and relevant today as they were when he spoke them. Protecting the vulnerable is not a political choice; it is a moral duty. Congresswoman Pressley's success in passing the Haiti TPS bill in the House of Representatives is an inspiration. And now the Senate must pass the bill, which I introduced alongside Senator Blunt Rochester, to designate Haiti for TPS until after the next Presidential election. I have called on every recent administration to designate, extend, and redesignate TPS for Haiti. I have also supported legislation to provide a legal pathway to residency for TPS holders. I will keep supporting this community. The narrative of TPS holders in the United States is a story of resilience, of hope, and of an enduring spirit. Despite facing adversity, TPS holders have continued to contribute to build lives and set down roots. Haitian TPS holders deserve our full protection. We cannot turn our backs on them now. That is the choice which we have to confront right now. And, again, I thank Senator Blunt Rochester for her leadership on this issue as well. And if you would like to be recognized now, or I will make the motion right now and then we will continue the debate. So as if in legislative session and notwithstanding rule XXII, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 374, H.R. 1689; further, I ask that the bill be considered read a third time and passed, and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
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