[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 195 (Thursday, November 30, 2017)]
[House]
[Page H9524]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   HAITI'S TEMPORARY PROTECTED STATUS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
New York (Ms. Clarke) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. CLARKE of New York. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to voice my outrage 
over the administration's unconscionable decision to terminate Haiti's 
temporary protected status designation on July 22, 2019.
  This decision, which came just days before Thanksgiving, will force 
over 50,000 Haitians to return to a country that is still struggling to 
recover from the devastating effects of the 2010 earthquake and reeling 
from a cholera epidemic and food insecurity caused by Hurricane Matthew 
that decimated Haiti's agricultural sector.
  Although Haiti has made extraordinary strides to overcome the impact 
of the deadly earthquake and subsequent events, including the cholera 
epidemic, food insecurity crisis, and Hurricanes Matthew, Irma, and 
Maria, it has killed over 10,000 people and hampered the recovery 
efforts.
  The devastation of these events should have made the decision to 
redesignate Haiti for 18 months without setting an end date an easy 
call, a no-brainer. However, last week's disastrous decision to 
terminate Haiti's TPS status did not occur in a vacuum.
  In the past few weeks alone, this administration has also announced 
its decision to terminate temporary protected status for Nicaragua and 
Sudan. These actions demonstrate the administration's clear departure 
from the bipartisan consensus that has always surrounded the TPS 
program which exists to protect human life. Instead, this 
administration has chosen to sow fear and division in our society to 
distract from its failed policies that benefit the wealthy at the 
expense of the vast majority of Americans.
  Faced with this clear and credible threat, we must come together to 
pass bipartisan legislation that protects all TPS-eligible individuals 
from being forced to return home to countries experiencing famine, 
natural disaster, and outright civil war. That is why I have worked 
with Representatives Ros-Lehtinen and Jayapal to introduce the 
bipartisan ASPIRE-TPS Act, which would provide meaningful protections 
to all TPS-eligible individuals.
  I urge my colleagues in this body to cosponsor our legislation. I 
also urge House leadership to bring it to the floor for a vote as soon 
as possible so that we can grant meaningful protection to the 300,000 
TPS-eligible individuals at risk of being sent back to life-threatening 
conditions abroad. Now is the time to act for the sake of 300,000 TPS-
eligible individuals and our standing in the world.

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