![\"Airport](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/MIA_113TPSProtestFLL10NEWPPP.JPG\" "\\"Airport")
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Airport and hotel food and beverage workers with the UNITE HERE Local 355 union,held a press conference at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on July 10, 2026, demanding an extension of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians.<\/p>\n
Pedro Portal<\/p>\n
pportal@miamiherald.com<\/p>\n
Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked Democrats\u2019 attempt to extend Temporary Protected Status for Haitians, rejecting legislation that would have allowed hundreds of thousands of Haitians to remain in the United States without fear of deportation until at least the next U.S. presidential election.<\/p>\n
In April, House Democrats, with the support of a handful of Republicans, passed legislation extending temporary protections<\/a> for Haitian immigrants by three years. The bill<\/a> was sponsored by Reps. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Laura Gillen of New York, both Democrats, and advanced to a vote after supporters successfully used a bipartisan discharge petition to get the bill out of committee.<\/a><\/p>\n Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Ed Markey and Delaware Democratic Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester later introduced companion legislation in the Senate. On Wednesday, they asked the Senate for unanimous consent to pass the House TPS legislation. But their effort to pass the measure Wednesday before Haitians\u2019 TPS expires on Friday was blocked by Missouri Republican Eric Schmitt. The senator accused Democrats of trying to make TPS permanent.<\/p>\n \u201cAmerica is not a global refugee camp. America is not a get-rich scheme for the Third World. America is our home, and when house guests become squatters, you don\u2019t delay enforcement. You call the sheriff and you send them home. That\u2019s exactly what we must do here today,\u201d Schmitt said.<\/p>\n Plea for support<\/p>\n Hours before the Senate debate, local elected officials in South Florida joined union, faith and business leaders and immigration advocates in urging senators to approve the bill. They specifically called on Florida Sens. Rick Scott and Ashley Moody, both Republicans, as well as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who previously represented Florida in the Senate.<\/p>\n \u201cAll the organizations on this have reached out to senators,\u201d said Paul Christian Namphy, political director of the Family Action Network Movement. \u201cIt\u2019s radio silence, and this is unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said her office had also tried to reach the lawmakers without success. Ending TPS, she said, would place 350,000 Haitians at risk of detention and deportation to a country in turmoil.<\/p>\n South Florida is home to one of the largest Haitian communities in the U.S. It\u2019s estimated that 90,500 Haitians here have TPS, which allows people from countries facing armed conflict or natural disasters to live and work temporarily in the U.S. TPS holders contribute about $5.8 billion annually into the U.S. economy and pay roughly $1.5 billion in taxes, Levine Cava and other leaders said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is our lifeline,\u201d Levine Cava said.<\/p>\n Haitians contributions to the U.S., the mayor highlighted, date back to America\u2019s fight for independence, when soldiers from the French colony of Saint-Domingue, present-day Haiti, fought in the Battle of Savannah in 1779. More recently, they have helped transform South Florida by \u201copening businesses, creating jobs, taking care of our elders, our seniors, our children, building our homes, strengthening our neighborhoods, enriching our culture.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are a critical, indispensable part of our entire economy,\u201d Levine Cava added. \u201cAnd right now, this community, this economy, faces an existential threat because of the ending of TPS.\u201d<\/p>\n The issue, Cava and Miami-Dade County Commissioner Marleine Bastien said, has been framed solely as immigration policy, when it is also about the workforce and economics.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not the Haitian immigration problem. This becomes every family\u2019s, every citizen\u2019s problem. The same is true for construction, hospitality, manufacturing, education, transportation, retail, and business services,\u201d said Bastien. \u201cOur economy is already facing labor shortages.<\/p>\n \u201cEnding TPS doesn\u2019t save American money,\u201d she added. \u201cEnding TPS costs America money.\u201d<\/p>\n Since the Supreme Court last month allowed the Trump administration to move forward with ending TPS protections, the longtime Haitian community advocate said her phone has not stopped ringing. She has received calls from both TPS holders and businesses who employ Haitians, asking what should they do. Father Reginald Jean-Mary of Notre Dame Catholic Church in Little Haiti he\u2019s never seen such suffering and fear in the community.<\/p>\n Behind the statistics are families facing agonizing decisions about their homes, their vehicles and even their U.S.-born children.<\/p>\n \u201cImagine spending 20 years building a career as a doctor and nurse, a business owner, homeowner, raising your children,\u201d said Bastien, only to end up one day in a nation where \u201cyour life, the lives of your loved ones might be in danger. Imagine that.\u201d<\/p>\n County Commissioner Oliver Gilbert III and State Sen. Shevrin Jones, both Democrats running for Florida\u2019s 24th Congressional District seat, didn\u2019t mince words about the Trump administration\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re dressing up their prejudice as policy,\u201d Jones said. \u201cThe real question is, what will we do? We have United States senators who represent Florida who support sending nations back. They don\u2019t actually represent Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n Jones told the story of a young woman who has spent 21 years in Florida under TPS with her family. \u201cYou know what her question was: What am I going back to? Who am I going back to? It\u2019s a death sentence.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat type of America is that? What type of Miami is that? The individuals who we come to them on campaign time ask for the Haitian vote, but we can\u2019t stand up and ask when they ask us for the support,\u201d he said. \u201cThe same group of people back in 1776, when they fought for this freedom, now are asking us to fight with them. It\u2019s not a strong ask. It\u2019s a simple ask. It\u2019s an American ask.\u201d<\/p>\n Jones said if House Democrats were able to get Republicans to support a bipartisan legislation to ensure that the people who\u2019ve been there for the U.S. didn\u2019t have to leave, then he could not see why the same couldn\u2019t happen in the Senate.<\/p>\n But Senate Republicans objected, with Schmitt arguing that voters had endorsed President Donald Trump\u2019s mass deportation platform, including his promise to end TPS for Haitians.<\/p>\n Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York accused the president of trying to force Haitians back into \u201cdangerous conditions\u201d they fled in Haiti.<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s be clear: Revoking Haitians\u2019 Temporary Protected Status will not only hurt them; it hurts our entire country,\u201d he said. \u201cIn New York, you can\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s true in cities and towns throughout the country,\u201d Schumer added. \u201cWe\u2019ve heard warnings that if Trump expels our Haitian TPS holders, it will strain our health system, create a gap in caregiving workforce that will be difficult to fill.\u201d<\/p>\n The Supreme Court, Markey said, failed a moral test by allowing the president to end the humanitarian program. Protecting the vulnerable is not a political choice but \u201ca moral duty,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cHaiti continues to confront overlapping crises, political instability, widespread violence, and a humanitarian emergency that has strained every single facet of daily life,\u201d said Markey who visited Haiti after Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and led efforts to get the United Nations to apologize after its troops introduced cholera in the wake of the 2010 earthquake. \u201cSadly, Haiti is still hurting. Haiti\u2019s security crisis is eroding the promise and future of an entire nation.\u201d<\/p>\n Markey and supporters of extending the protections noted on Wednesday that armed groups control large swaths of Haiti\u2019s capital. Kidnappings, targeted violence and road blockades have made it difficult for people to reach hospitals, attend school and access basic services.<\/p>\n Instead of meeting Haiti\u2019s catastrophe with compassion, the administration instead has chosen to compound the trauma, the lawmakers argued.<\/p>\n \u201cIt 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, and that\u2019s utter hypocrisy,\u201d Markey said.<\/p>\n Lawmakers vow to keep fighting<\/p>\n During her remarks on the Senate floor, Blunt Rochester described beneficiaries in her state including a woman named Marie, who came to the state at the age of 12 and went on to become one first Haitian certified real estate agent in the state.<\/p>\n \u201cShe received a deportation letter last April. Everyone in her family received the letter, including her one-year-old niece,\u201d Blunt Rochester said.<\/p>\n Another constituent and her family fled to Delaware after a gang war broke out in Haiti following the assassination of President Jovene Moise in 2021. She and her family also received a deportation letter that has left them \u201cdepressed and scared\u201d and sent into a tailspin as they face a devastating choice.<\/p>\n \u201cDo you stay here illegally? They don\u2019t want to do that. 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?\u201d the congresswoman said.<\/p>\n The administration\u2019s policy, the congresswoman said, \u201cis driven by cruelty and xenophobia, and it has real consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n Maryland Democrat Chris Van Hollen said despite Wednesday\u2019s block by Republicans they will not give up. But he acknowledged the impact of the move.<\/p>\n \u201cNow TPS holders face imminent loss of their legal status and of their work authorizations. 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Temporary Protective Status Program is now having the protective status part of it ripped out by our colleagues.\u201d<\/p>\n This story was originally published July 22, 2026 at 8:24 PM.<\/p>\n