Haitians on Temporary Protective Status received a last-minute reprieve Monday night when a federal judge ruled in favor of plaintiffs who sued to stop the termination of TPS for Haitians.
The Trump Administration was set to end TPS for Haitians on Wednesday, meaning more than 300,000 Haitians would be unable to work legally in the United States and would also be subject to deportation.
“Well at this point, we’re breathing a sigh of relief because our employees can continue working, for them and for us,” said Archbishop Thomas Wenski of the Archdiocese of Miami.
The judge’s ruling means certified nurse assistant Viaotis Philias can keep doing what she does at Miami Jewish Health, where she has worked for the past seven years, instead of heading back to a country she doesn’t know anymore.
“I don’t have any place to go in Haiti. I’m thinking about that sometime, but what can I do? I don’t have any place to go nowhere,” she said, and added that the judge’s decision is “big, big relief for me.”
“Well, the ruling is a welcome reprieve,” Wenski said, “But it’s not the end of the fight because what is given can be taken away by a higher court.”
The Trump Administration will likely appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court, and in other recent TPS appeals, it has allowed the government to deport TPS holders while it decides the cases involved.
Wenski says the Archdiocese, including Catholic Health Services, employs about 150 Haitian workers who have TPS. He said the judge’s ruling is good for them, for their patients, and for their employers.
“Had this gone through, there would’ve been an immediate negative impact on the economy of South Florida,” Wenski said. “There’s no supply of people waiting to take their jobs.”
“We’re all living in limbo,” added Jeffrey Freimark, CEO of Miami Jewish Health, one of the state’s largest elder care providers.
Freimark says employers like his organization have nowhere to turn if TPS for Haitians is terminated.
“From our standpoint, we do our best in order to schedule and plan and recruit in the event that we need replacements for those positions but it is virtually impossible to recruit for those positions from a workforce that is essentially nonexistent,” Freimark said.
Wenski said it’s time Congress created a path to citizenship for TPS holders.
“Immigrants are not problems, they’re opportunities,” the Archbishop said.
But when it concerns TPS, the Administration says it is supposed to be temporary, as the name implies, and the Department of Homeland Security says conditions in Haiti have improved enough to send people back who have lived and worked in the United States for years.
At the same time, the State Department, which is also, of course, part of the Trump Administration, says Haiti is currently so dangerous that no one should travel there.