Dozens rally in North Miami for Haiti TPS extension ahead of Supreme Court hearing
Dozens of community members rallied Sunday in North Miami to call on federal leaders to extend Temporary Protected Status for more than 350,000 Haitian nationals at risk of deportation.
The Family Action Network Movement, along with other South Florida immigration advocates, called for the demonstration at the Museum of Contemporary Art plaza, as the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to hear oral arguments Wednesday about the possible termination of TPS for Haiti.
Women and girls as young as five are being victimized in Haiti, and people across Haiti face violence every day, Miami-Dade Commissioner Marleine Bastien said, adding the U.S. needs to stand up and protect Haitians from being forced to return to unlivable conditions.
“Haiti has been going through the worst crisis in its history,” Bastien said.
Many people wore red and blue, the Haitian flag or other symbols of national pride while they sang and prayed. Others held signs that read “Save lives — vote to extend Haiti TPS” and “Deportation puts lives at risk,” as the crowd shouted, “This is what democracy looks like.”
North Miami Vice Mayor Kassandra Timothe encouraged people to make their voices heard in Congress and in the Supreme Court. The North Miami rally was part of a series of demonstrations, including one in Atlanta on April 18 and one scheduled in Washington, D.C., in front of the Supreme Court on April 29, coinciding with the oral arguments.
Several advocates at Sunday’s rally argued the effort to terminate TPS protections is discriminatory and dismissive of Haiti’s ongoing humanitarian crisis.
“We have the most Haitian Americans of anywhere in this country,” and they are beloved and hardworking members of the community, said Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, who attended the rally.
“This is not just a Haitian American problem,” she added. “This is a Miami-Dade County problem. This is a national problem. This is a global problem.”
Levine Cava asked the crowd how the United States could consider sending people back to Haiti to live when the State Department advises Americans against traveling there. The State Department issued a Level Rour travel advisory for Haiti —do not travel — due to the risks from crime, terrorism, kidnapping, unrest and limited health care, according to its website.
Members of the public who aren’t Haitian may view those affected as a statistic, but they are real families, individuals and children who are part of everyday lives in South Florida, Kendra Howard, one of rally organizers, told the Miami Herald.
“They will have to go back to a situation that we just can’t fathom,” Howard said. “They work, and they live, and they are people.”
Farah Larrieux, a Haitian TPS recipient since 2010, told the Herald that the end of the status would be a great injustice. It’s “not the promise of the land,” she said. She added that knowing her immigration protections are at risk has affected her mental and physical health.
For many, it would be a death sentence to be forced to return to Haiti, she said.
“Some people even have expressed that they would prefer to kill themselves instead of going back to Haiti,” Larrieux said. “Some TPS recipients don’t have anywhere to go in Haiti. They have no home.”
