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Vol. 81/No. 21 May 29, 2017
Miami action defends rights of Haitian immigrants
Militant/Chuck Guerra
MIAMI — Hundreds of people demonstrated in front of the U.S. Citizenship
and Immigration Services office here May 13 demanding that Temporary
Protected Status — the right to live and work in the U.S. — be extended
for 58,000 immigrants from Haiti.
TPS was created in 1990 for refugees from countries devastated by wars
or natural disasters. The Barack Obama administration extended it to
immigrants from Haiti after an earthquake there in 2010 killed about
300,000 people and left 1.5 million homeless. It has been renewed three
times since, including after a cholera outbreak killed 9,000 and
sickened 800,000 more, and after Hurricane Matthew hit in 2016, killing
over 1,000 and devastating much of the country.
Citizenship and Immigration Services has recommended the Department of
Homeland Security not renew TPS for Haitians when the current extension
expires in July, claiming the situation there has improved. The decision
is expected by May 23.
The May 13 action was organized by a coalition of Haitian community
groups, labor unions and others. Many people carried signs saying, “Yes
to TPS” and “Immigrants’ rights are human rights.” Some waved Haitian
flags. A contingent from UNITE HERE came, carrying a union banner
reading, “All races. All religions. All immigrants.”
Cynthia Jaquith, right, Socialist Workers Party candidate for mayor of
Miami, joined the protest, carrying a sign reading, “Stop deportations!
Amnesty now! Halt attacks on TPS!”
— CHUCK GUERRA
Related articles:
Immigrant workers in Colorado beat back deportations
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