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