Baltimore, MD– The NAACP is outraged at Homeland Security officials’ announcement that the Trump administration has decided to revoke Temporary Protected Status (TPS) from 59,000 Haitians.
The Temporary Protected Status Program, enacted by President George Bush in 1990, currently benefits 320,000 individuals. El Salvador, with 200,000 people in the program, makes up the largest percentage; Haiti comes in second. This week’s Homeland Security announcement followed another on November 6 that ended protections for 2,500 Nicaraguans.
“The gradual abolition of this humanitarian program is an absolute travesty,” said Derrick Johnson, NAACP President and CEO. “TPS has aided thousands of Haitian families, still struggling to endure the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake. The program embodies America’s promise as a global safe haven, an asylum for the huddled masses. Our current administration obviously has no intention of making good on that promise. The reluctance with which President Trump provided relief to Puerto Rico following Hurricane Irma demonstrated the shallowness of his sympathy for non-white victims of natural disasters. This latest decision on the TPS program takes his disregard for communities of color in need an appalling step further.”
The NAACP urges our government’s leaders to reconsider their decision and extend the protections on which 59,000 Haitians depend. The NAACP also calls upon the administration to halt their unraveling of the TPS program and instead invest in the well-being of all those who call the United States home.