Florida Republican says deporting Haitians with TPS would be ‘huge mistake’ | Republicans
Carlos Giménez, a Republican congressman from Florida, broke with the Trump administration on Sunday and called on the White House to reconsider its effort to eliminate temporary protected status (TPS) for Haitian immigrants.
Giménez said it would be a big mistake to return nearly 350,000 Haitians to their chaotic and dangerous homeland following a U.S. supreme court ruling that the Trump administration could cut off temporary legal protections.
“Haiti is a failed state, and I think it would be a huge mistake to deport Haitians currently under TPS to Haiti,” he said. he told CBS News. Giménez also called for TPS status to be reinstated for Venezuelans following the record-breaking twin earthquakes that hit north-central Venezuela on June 24.
Giménez said temporary protected status “is intended to protect those who are either fleeing failed states and are at risk of returning to them, or fleeing countries that are not really coping with them at the moment, as in the case of Venezuela, which has suffered a natural disaster.”
Giménez, whose family fled Cuba when he was seven, represents part of Miami-Dade County, which has about 110,000 residents of Haitian descent.
The high court ruling authorized the administration’s plans to end TCP for more than 350,000 Haitians and nearly 6,000 Syrians. A guidance issued last week by the Department of Homeland Security said TPS Haiti beneficiaries will retain their status and employment authorization “until lower courts align with a favorable ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.”
Giménez’s comments echo those of Mike DeWine, the Republican governor of Ohio, home to a thriving Haitian community in the town of Springfield, about which Donald Trump and J.D. Vance spread false claims during their 2024 campaigns to justify their anti-immigration agenda.
DeWine last week called on the Trump administration to reconsider pushing to revoke temporary protected status for Haitian immigrants. “Look at how it will affect states like Ohio. In Ohio, Haitians primarily work in manufacturing, but they also work in food.”
“A lot of times, it’s the Haitians who are taking care of your mother or father who has Alzheimer’s, who are taking care of family members who may be in a nursing home,” the governor told CNN. “And it’s not in our interest to say we’re going to pull all these people out.”
DeWine also said Haiti was “clearly” unsafe, pointing to the state department’s travel advisories, and argued that ending TPS for Haitian immigrants “is not in the interest of the United States, certainly not in the interest of Ohio, to have people who work every day, raise a family, buy homes, fix up old homes, start businesses, and then put down deep roots in this country and actually contribute, and take them away.”
“I hope the Trump administration will reconsider the issue,” DeWine added.
One of those opposing ending TPS for Haitian immigrants is New York Republican Mike Lawler, a congressman who represents a swing district and risks losing his seat in midterm elections. One-third of Haitian TPS holders work in health care, Lawler said. He said the “immediate closure of TPS” would “create a crisis” in hospitals, care homes and disability communities.
owned by Giménez called in advance He called on the Trump administration to back away from ending the TPR for Haitian immigrants and supported a bill that would require the secretary of homeland security to designate Haiti for the TPR by 2029.
“Haiti today is being overrun by violent gangs,” a statement in April said. “It is neither safe nor humane to return our neighbors to these conditions.” Providing TPS “is not only sound policy, it is the right thing to do, and I am proud to vote for this common-sense, bipartisan solution that ensures our Haitian neighbors can continue to contribute to our society,” he added.
Design, H.R. 1689It passed the House 224-204 after receiving the support of South Florida lawmakers, including María Elvira Salazar, Mario Díaz-Balart and Giménez, all Republicans from Miami, as well as Democrats in the state. The bill is currently awaiting consideration in the Senate.
