Vol. 72/No. 49      December 15, 2008

The demonstration was organized by the Haitian Citizen United Task Force. The group brought eight busloads of Haitians and their supporters from all over south Florida.

“They can’t deny us. We need TPS. And we’re not going to stop until we get TPS,” said Jackson Gurin, who lives in Haiti.

“We need working permits. We need Bush to give TPS so we can work,” said Max Louis, a construction worker from this city.

“The country right now is in very, very bad shape and we think it’s inhuman for the U.S. government to keep sending people to Haiti,” said Lesly Jacques with the Haitian Coalition for TPS. Haiti has been hit by four tropical storms this season, which devastated the country leaving hundreds of thousands homeless.

This summer, the Department of Homeland Security announced a temporary suspension of deportations to Haiti because of massive flooding from the storms, but the U.S. government has not gone as far as to call it TPS.

Although deportations to Haiti are temporarily halted, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials are still arresting those living in the United States without proper documents and placing them in detention centers until the suspension is lifted.

Temporary Protected Status grants temporary residency and work authorization. In the past TPS has been granted to immigrants from El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Somalia, Burundi, and Sudan.
 
 
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