LSSNCA condemns the Administration’s decision to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians. This decision comes at a time when Haiti remains profoundly unsafe: armed groups continue to terrorize communities, force families from their homes, disrupt access to food, health care, and schools, and leave many people without a functioning path to safety or democratic stability.
“TPS is a promise that we will not send people back into danger when returning is not safe. Ending that protection for Haitians breaks that promise and places families—many with U.S.-born children—in an impossible and heartbreaking position,” said Kristyn Peck, LSSNCA CEO.
TPS was created by Congress in 1990 to protect nationals of countries where armed conflict, disaster, or extraordinary conditions make safe return impossible. Since its initial designation in 2010, the U.S. government and courts extended, redesignated or automatically renewed its designation over ten times. During that time, Haitian nationals created businesses in our neighborhoods, grew their families, attended our churches, cared for our families and became our friends. Ending TPS now is not simply an administrative change; it is a disruption to American communities, places of worship, businesses and a settled expectation of freedom from harm until it is safe to return.
Haitian families with United States children face especially painful decisions. Parents must choose between leaving their children behind or taking them to a country where safety, schooling, health care, and basic stability are precarious at best. Family unity is a core principle of LSSNCA’s work and mission. Forcing parents into an impossible choice is an affront to that principle.
Inspired by the biblical call to “speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,” LSSNCA urges Congress to advance and pass S.4814 “A bill to require the Secretary of Homeland Security to designate Haiti for temporary protected status,” restore protection for Haitians, and uphold the principle of TPS: to ensure safety in home countries before returning its nationals.
