Last Thursday the U.S. Supreme Court struck down lower court rulings that paused ending temporary protective status (TPS) for Haitian refugees. This means some 355,000 Haitians currently residing in the United States face immediate deportation. The Court majority reasoned that, according to the letter of the law, matters effecting TPS status are not subject to judicial review. It also rejected the claim that ending Haitian TPS status violated the Constitution because it was decided on a racist basis.
Justice Alito dismissed all of Donald Trump’s overtly racist statements about Haitians saying none of those statements “was overtly racial, and in substance all expressed policy views that could rest on” reasons having nothing to do with race.” He added, “political discourse by prominent public figures is increasingly couched in terms that would have scandalized the public just a short time ago,” and that the statements made by Trump “exemplify this development.” He was referring to Trump’s claims that the Haitians were eating people’s cats and dogs, came from a “shithole country,” and his wish that we took in immigrants from other countries like Norway instead. In her scathing dissent, Justice Kagan blasted Alito’s and the majority’s willful ignoring of the blatantly racist nature of Trump’s statements.
As readers know, conditions in Haiti remain dire and dangerous, and returning refugees who have resided here since the 2010 Haitian earthquake seems unusually cruel. The Supreme Court decision leaves room for Congress to vote to restore TPS status. The House of Representatives voted in April to restore Haitian TPS status for three years via Representative Ayanna Presley’s discharge petition. Ten Republicans and one Independent joined all the Democrats in a 224-204 vote.
Now it is up to the Senate.
On June 17th, Senator Chris Murphy introduced S. 4814, a Senate bill to extend TPS protections for Haitians for three years. The bill has 19 co-sponsors including Senators Alsobrooks, Bennet, Blunt Rochester, Booker, Coons, Duckworth, Gillibrand, Hirono, Kim, King, Markey, Murray, Reed, Schumer, Van Hollen, Warnock, Warren, Welch, and Whitehouse and is awaiting a hearing in the Judiciary Committee.
I urge Buddhist Coalition for Democracy members all across the country to write to their Senators in support of S. 4814. It’s an easy thing to do, and it gives us a real chance to help protect 355,000 immigrants from the Trump administration’s cruel, bigoted anti-immigrant crusade.