Alcee Hastings seeks to extend protected status for Haitians

Democratic U.S. Rep Alcee Hastings, joined by both Florida U.S. senators and seven South Florida members of Congress, is calling on the President Donald Trump administration to extend temporary protected status for Haitian nationals.

Hastings, from Fort Lauderdale, sent a letter Friday to U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly urging the extended protection for Haitians living in the United States. Joining him were U.S. Sens. Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio; Democratic U.S. Reps. Ted Deutch, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Frederica Wilson and Lois Frankel; and Republican U.S. Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Mario Diaz-Balart, and Carlos Curbelo.

All, except Nelson, who is from Orlando, are from South Florida.

“Through TPS, our country has been committed to providing a safe haven to individuals unable to securely return to their home country due to ongoing environmental disasters and violence that have severely impacted their country,” the letter states. It goes on to cite a serious of calamities that have hit Haiti in recent years, from the the 2010 earthquake to last fall’s Hurricane Matthew.

The U.S. Census American Community Survey estimates there were about 472,000 Haitians in Florida in 2014, almost half of all those countrymen in the United States. That estimate is up dramatically from the 2010 Census, which counted 380,000 in Florida.

While the Miami-South Florida area is home to an estimated 197,000 Haitian immigrants, according to the Migration Policy Institute’s analysis of those ACS data, it is not the only significant center. Orlando is listed as having the nation’s fourth-largest Haitian community (behind Miami, New York and Boston,) and Naples and Fort Myers-Coral Springs also host significant communities, according to the institute’s data.

“Given the continued difficult conditions in Haiti, we urge your administration to extend the TPS designation, within all applicable rules and regulations, for Haitian nationals who are currently living in, and contributing to, our great country,” the letter concludes.