Congressman Alcee L. Hastings (D-FL) released the following statement blasting House Republicans for blocking his amendment that would have created a pathway to citizenship for long-term Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders. Hastings offered the amendment to both H.R. 4760 and H.R.6136. (Please attached a copy of the amendment):
“Last night in the Rules Committee, I offered an amendment that would have provided a pathway to citizenship for certain long-term TPS holders. Not surprisingly in this historically closed Congress, my amendment was not made in order.
“As we discuss the need for DREAMers to have a pathay to citizenship, which they must, I want to make sure that those who are in our country under TPS are not passed over and forgotten. These individuals are hardworking taxpayers, many of whom have U.S.-born children or U.S. citizen spouses, and they contribute to our economy and communities in myriad and dynamic ways. They work at our airports, in our service industries, in our health care sector, and on our construction sites. They are fathers, mothers, sisters, and brothers. They are members of our faith based communities. And every single one of them to a person hails from a country still recovering from natural disasters, internal violence, or both.
“I will give you just one example, on January 12, 2010, Haiti was devastated by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake. One and a half million people were displaced, 300,000 buildings were destroyed, and eight years on, tens of thousands of people remain in camps waiting for the day when they can start to try to put their lives back together again. However, between the day that earthquake laid waste to much of Haiti and today, the Haitian people have suffered a cholera outbreak that to date has killed roughly ten thousand people and can be directly linked to the aftermath of the earthquake, and Hurricane Matthew. That hurricane was the first Category Four hurricane to hit Haiti in over half a century claiming one thousand lives and displacing more than 2 million people.
“Haiti, quite simply, continues to climb out from the rubble of the earthquake, cholera outbreak, and Hurricane Matthew and we here in the United States have tried to help them do so, as we should. In its wisdom, the Trump Administration has decided to end TPS for Haiti and many other countries. Not only does this conclusion fly in the face of the facts as we know them, but it needlessly inflicts countless wounds on our communities, on families, and our economy – not to mention the economies of the countries which have been able to benefit in their respective recoveries from the remittances sent back home from those here under TPS.
“Allowing those in our country who are here under TPS and who would like to become citizens the opportunity to do so is not only morally right, but it is the right thing to do for our communities and our economy.”
Congressman Alcee L. Hastings serves as Senior Member of the House Rules Committee, Ranking Democratic Member of the U.S. Helsinki Commission, and Co-Chairman of the Florida Delegation.
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