{"id":142223,"date":"2026-02-03T18:23:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T18:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/142223\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T18:23:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T18:23:14","slug":"central-florida-haitian-community-reacts-to-tps-end-block","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/142223\/","title":{"rendered":"Central Florida Haitian community reacts to TPS end block"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A federal judge has halted the termination of protections that allow hundreds of thousands of Haitians to live in the U.S. The change was scheduled to take effect on Tuesday but is now paused.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Florida is home to more than 350,000 Haitians. Many of them are employed in Central Florida\u2019s largest industry, which is tourism.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cI was sad,\u201d Nattacha Wyllie, who runs the Haitian American Art Network, said. \u201cKnowing Haiti\u2019s situation, the first thing that came to mind is where those people are going to go.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Wyllie left Haiti when she was twelve and now calls Orlando home.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Haiti\u2019s Temporary Protected Status (TPS) was initially activated in 2010 after a catastrophic earthquake and has been extended multiple times.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Wyllie said the country is racked by gang violence and is not safe to return to.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cKnowing the people who left Haiti to be here have nothing else in Haiti,\u201d Wyllie said. \u201cGoing back would be like starting all over to them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">While the order to end TPS for Haitians is on pause, Wyllie isn\u2019t sure what to expect in the days ahead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Florida Congressman Randy Fine reacted to the block. He sent Channel 9 this statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cThis is the latest attempt by an activist judge to undermine President Trump\u2019s agenda. Judge Ana Reyes seems to have forgotten that Temporary Protected Status was never meant to be permanent. She can cry racism all she wants, but when that status ends, it\u2019s time to go home.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried also reacted. She said in part:<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cEnding TPS for our Haitian neighbors is not just cruel, it\u2019s inhumane. We know this is not permanent, that this is one step in a very long journey for these Haitian families.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">While TPS holders are granted the right to live and work in the U.S., it does not provide a legal pathway to citizenship.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/mobile-apps\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Click here;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Click here<\/a> to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/video\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:click here;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">click here<\/a> to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.<\/p>\n<p><a data-ylk=\"ct:story;elm:img;itc:0;\" class=\"stretched-box\" href=\"https:\/\/wftvapps.com\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><img alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"537\" height=\"108\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/beda08358d6db9816e7b0d066edd22cf.jpeg\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A federal judge has halted the termination of protections that allow hundreds of thousands of Haitians to live&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[147,28,30,29,8367,68978,68979,68977,31202],"class_list":{"0":"post-142223","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-central-florida","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-florida-headlines","11":"tag-florida-news","12":"tag-haiti","13":"tag-haitian-american-art-network","14":"tag-hundreds-of-thousands","15":"tag-nattacha-wyllie","16":"tag-temporary-protected-status"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}