“I want the Senate to pass this bill to protect Haitian immigrants from deportation. Donald Trump wants to end their temporary protected status and send them back to dangerous conditions. Haitians work hard, pay taxes, and fill important jobs in healthcare and business. Forcing them to leave will hurt our economy and make the crisis in Haiti worse.”

“Mr. President, I am beginning a series of Senators who are speaking about Haiti and TPS. The Haitian community is woven into the fabric of our great American family, but Donald Trump is trying to tear it apart by terminating Haiti’s temporary protected status. As someone who takes great pride in representing the State that is home to the largest Haitian population in the country, I know just how important the Haitian community is to the American economy, to culture, to society. But, unfortunately, Donald Trump clearly doesn’t. Trump has vilified Haitians with his bigoted attacks and stereotypes, over and over again. Now, Trump is trying to force Haitians who are here legally to return to the dangerous conditions they fled in Haiti. Let’s be clear: Revoking Haitians’ temporary protected status will not only hurt them; it hurts our entire country. In New York, you can’t go into a hospital, a nursing home, or a clinic without seeing scores of dedicated healthcare professionals who are fiercely proud of their Haitian heritage. That is true in cities and towns throughout the country. We have heard warnings that if Trump expels our Haitian TPS holders, it will strain our health system and create a gap in our caregiving workforce that will be difficult to fill. These people are our friends. They are our neighbors. They take care of the elderly and people with disabilities. They are entrepreneurs and small businessowners. They work hard and pay taxes. Let’s not forget Haitian TPS holders add nearly $6 billion to the U.S. economy each year. Ending TPS doesn’t fix our broken system; it only makes things worse. It is cruel. It is counterproductive. Sending 300,000 people to Haiti with little or no support will further destabilize an already severe humanitarian and security crisis on our country’s doorstep. I urge all of my colleagues to support our legislation and preserve Haitians’ TPS status. I will keep fighting for Haitian Americans in New York and beyond--any time, any place. I yield the floor.”

“I want the Senate to pass this bill. It protects people from Haiti living in the United States from being sent back. Haiti is dealing with terrible violence and disasters right now, so it is not safe for them to return.”

“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.”

“I want to protect Haitian immigrants from being deported. Haiti is too dangerous for them to return to safely. Republicans blocked this bill, but I will keep fighting for them.”

“Mr. President, the objection we just heard is exactly why this law to protect Haiti TPS is necessary, and I am incredibly disappointed in my Republican colleagues for turning their backs on the Haitian TPS community in this dire time. TPS represents America’s longstanding commitment to serve as a beacon of hope and refuge for the vulnerable. To honor and to protect Haitian TPS holders is a moral duty. It is also an acknowledgment of the immense contributions TPS holders make to our families, to our neighborhoods. And for years, TPS holders have reliably, patiently, and emphatically offered stability and dignity and security to so many. The Senator from Missouri said the keyword is ``temporary’’; no, the keyword is ``protection.’’ The duration of how long it should be extended to give people protection is what we are debating here today. If the State Department says it is too dangerous for Americans to go to Haiti, then Haitians who are given TPS protections are also living with a danger that is too great for them and their families to be returned to a State Department- designated country too dangerous to visit. They only ask for something that is just so clear, so decent, so obvious--just the stability of preserving their status, the dignity to live without fear, the security of not being returned to danger. It is the least we owe to them. But this fight to protect Haiti and its TPS protections is not over. To the families lying awake tonight afraid of what comes next: We will continue to fight for you. To the children asking if their parents will be here in the morning: We will continue to fight for you. To every person who did everything right, who followed the rules, who believed in the promise of America: We will continue to fight for you. We are not done. This administration and Senate Republicans cannot take away your humanity, your dignity, your future. We are going to continue to fight, and it is my honor to be able to partner with the great Senator from Delaware, my partner in this effort, the great Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester.”

“I want the Senate to pass this bill to extend temporary protected status for immigrants from Haiti. Haiti is suffering from gang violence, political unrest, and natural disasters, so it is too dangerous for these people to return. They are working legally, paying taxes, and contributing to our communities, and we should not force them out.”

“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.”

“I want the Senate to protect people from Haiti living here legally under temporary protected status. Republicans just blocked a vote to do that. Haiti is too dangerous for them to be forced to return, and they should be allowed to stay and work here.”

“Mr. President, I 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. And 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. As 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. For 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. To 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. And I do want to underscore what Senator Blunt Rochester and Senator Markey have said. They 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. You know, last year, the administration moved to terminate Haiti’s TPS designation, and that action was challenged in court. And the Federal courts temporarily blocked that termination. 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. 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. So let’s be clear about what that means. Let’s just be clear about the harm that we are forcing these individuals to face. It 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. Anyone following the situation in Haiti knows it remains very dangerous. Indeed, as my colleagues have said, the State Department continues to warn Americans not to travel to Haiti because of crime, kidnapping, terrorism, unrest, and other factors. The country remains under a state of emergency, and 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. When 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. While 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. More than half the population needs humanitarian assistance. More than 5.8 million people are expected to face hunger this year. Meanwhile, armed gangs continue to control large parts of Port-au-Prince and other parts of the country. A lot of these gangs are responsible for killings, kidnappings, sexual violence, and forced displacements of entire communities. And 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. You 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. But 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. In fact, they have to check in every single year and make sure that they continue to meet the requirements of the law. And 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. I, again, thank my colleague Senator Markey for his efforts, and we will keep at it together. I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Armstrong). The Senator from Iowa.”