In bipartisan vote, Miami-Dade County Commission urges Trump to keep TPS for migrants

Republicans and Democrats on the Miami-Dade County Commission on Tuesday urged the Trump administration to reverse course and extend deportation protection for Haitians, Venezuelans and other immigrants from countries the Biden administration deemed too dangerous for normal repatriation efforts.

“We shouldn’t be talking about foreign policy all the time here,” said Commissioner Juan Carlos Bermudez, a Republican born in Cuba who secured President Donald Trump’s endorsement for his 2022 commission race. “But I will support the [resolution] because we are a community of immigrants.”

The resolution by Commissioner René Garcia, a former Miami-Dade GOP chair, urges the Trump administration to maintain all Temporary Protection Status (TPS) designations currently in place. Federal law allows the Department of Homeland Security to issue TPS designations allowing eligible migrants from troubled countries to stay in the U.S., and the deportation shields expire in 18 months or less if not renewed or revoked.

In a statement, Garcia called TPS recipients “contributing members of our workforce and community” and said that “prematurely” removing their deportation protections would create “unnecessary instability for families and businesses that rely on them.”

There are currently 17 countries with TPS designations, and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem last week took the first legal step toward ending the protection for Venezuelans. During the presidential campaign, Trump said he planned to end TPS for Haitians as part of a broader rollback on immigration protections and allowances.

Miami-Dade is home to some of the largest concentrations of immigrants from Venezuela and Haiti. While Republicans and Democrats on the officially nonpartisan commission voted for the pro-TPS resolution, the debate reflected friction over the issue. Garcia’s legislation urged Trump to retain TPS for “law-abiding” migrants, suggesting deportations should continue for people also facing criminal charges in the United States.

Commissioner Marleine Bastien, a Democrat who was born in Haiti, urged the board to resist that position, arguing it was unfair to deport someone simply because they were cited with what she described as a minor infraction, such as driving without a license or not paying a court fine.

“When the present administration tells you that they are arresting criminals, you have to pause and understand: Who are they arresting?” said Bastien, who runs a nonprofit social services group that focuses on immigrant communities. “Because someone whose wife is about to have a baby and who has to drive her to the hospital because we refuse to give them a driver’s license … they can be arrested.”

Two Republican commissioners stepped away for the vote: Roberto Gonzalez and Kevin Cabrera, Trump’s nominee to be ambassador to Panama.

Though the vote was unanimous, the Republican leader of the board said he doubted there’s much point passing legislation “urging” someone else to take action on something the commission doesn’t control.

“Urgings mean nothing,” said Chairman Anthony Rodriguez, a former state lawmaker.

This story was originally published February 4, 2025 at 2:29 PM.