Senator Ed Markey on Wednesday planned to introduce a bill that would grant people from Haiti humanitarian legal protections, shielding them from deportation, until after President Trump completes his term in 2029.
The bill, which is also being introduced by Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware, seeks to require the Department of Homeland Security to designate Haiti for Temporary Protected Status, a program that allows some 330,000 Haitians across the country to legally live and work in the United States.
For more than a year, the Trump administration has repeatedly tried to end TPS for Haitian nationals, a legal battle that has made its way to the Supreme Court. The court is expected to release its decision in the next few weeks on whether the Trump administration can revoke TPS for Haitians.
Markey said in an interview with the Globe that the new bill “would protect TPS holders, and give them a critical lifeline.”
“It’s not safe for Haitians to return to Haiti,” Markey said, pointing to government warnings for US citizens not to travel there due to kidnapping, crime, and civil unrest in the country. “If it’s unsafe for Americans to go to Haiti, then it would be inhumane for us to send Haitians, who are here and safe, back.”
In a statement to the Globe last month, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said that TPS “was never intended to be a de facto asylum program.”
“The Trump administration is restoring integrity to our immigration system to keep our homeland and its people safe, and we expect a higher court to vindicate us in this,” the spokesperson said.
Markey, along with Representative Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, led 183 lawmakers to file an amicus brief in the Supreme Court case earlier this year. Now, Markey says he is optimistic that the Supreme Court will rule that Haitians can continue to live in the United States under TPS.
The bill may face difficult odds toward becoming law, given the divide across the aisle on many immigration related measures.
But a recent bipartisan vote in the House has brought some lawmakers and immigrant advocates hope. In April, the House passed legislation to extend TPS for Haitians for three additional years, a charge led by Pressley, a Democrat who is the co-chair for the House Haiti Caucus. In this case, 10 Republicans sided with Democrats, breaking party lines.
Either way, Markey said he is committed to garnering bipartisan support for the bill. “We are going to find support across the aisle,” Markey told the Globe.
The bill has more than a dozen Senate co-sponsors, including Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Senator Patty Murray of Washington, Senator Peter Welch of Vermont, and Senator Angus King of Maine.
In the meantime, many of the approximately 45,000 Haitians in Massachusetts on TPS are anxiously waiting to learn if they will have a lawful path forward to remain in the country. Many feel that the futures of their families are in jeopardy, they have told the Globe in recent weeks.
TPS was created to help people from countries undergoing violent conflict, environmental catastrophes, or other dangerous conditions, and shields them from deportation. The program was first opened to Haitians after the 2010 earthquake in the country killed more than 200,000 people and devastated the economy.
Some Haitians now with TPS, especially in Massachusetts, have been in the country for a decade or longer. Many have US citizen children, established careers and businesses here, and have become part of the state’s community fabric.
They also make up a sizable portion of Massachusetts’ health care workforce, which is facing severe staffing shortages. Haitians are crucial staff in nursing homes, long-term care facilities, and hospitals across the state.
A recent report by three Massachusetts federal lawmakers, including Markey, found that the Trump administration’s efforts to revoke TPS would significantly exacerbate nationwide health care worker shortages and limit available health care services.
If TPS is taken away from Haitians, Markey said, “it will create a catastrophe here in Massachusetts, and our country.”
“It would be an absolute devastating blow to the safety of those families and to our economy,” Markey said. “We need to keep going in the Senate and push the issue, and that’s what I’m going to do.”
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly named one of the Senate co-sponsors on the bill. She is Senator Patty Murray of Washington.
Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio can be reached at giulia.mcdnr@globe.com. Follow her @giuliamcdnr.