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Vol. 81/No. 23 June 12, 2017
Haitian immigrants fight deportation
BY CHUCK GUERRA
MIAMI, Fla. — Some 58,000 Haitians in the United States under Temporary
Protected Status will have their legal status terminated in January
2018, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced May 22. TPS
allows refugees from natural disasters and wars abroad to live and work
in the U.S.
The Barack Obama administration extended Temporary Protected Status to
immigrants from Haiti after a 2010 earthquake there killed about 300,000
people and left 1.5 million homeless. Some 9,000 more were killed in a
cholera outbreak spread by U.N. troops sent after the quake, and 1,000
were killed when Hurricane Matthew left much of the country devastated
in 2016.
Department of Homeland Security officials told the press the situation
in Haiti “has substantially improved” and the Haitian government wants
their people back.
Haitian authorities said this is not their view and called for the
protected status of the Haitians to be extended for at least 18 months.
Hundreds of Haitians protested here May 13 demanding an extension.
There are citizens of nine other countries currently living in the U.S.
under TPS, including Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras and Sudan.
“If it’s canceled for the Haitians, we know it will be canceled for
Hondurans, Nicaraguans and Salvadorans,” Francisco Portillo, president
of Miami-based Francisco Morazán Honduran Organization, told the Miami
Herald May 9.
Cynthia Jaquith, Socialist Workers Party candidate for mayor of Miami,
spoke out in solidarity with Haitians and others covered by TPS. “The
bosses in the United States use immigration status as a wedge to
heighten divisions among working people here,” Jaquith said. “We need
amnesty to unite the working class so we can wage a common fight against
the attacks by the bosses and their government raining down today.”
Related articles:
Atlanta: ‘We won’t be silent’ fighting deportations
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