Vote On Protected Status For Haiti Could Come This Week, Gillen, Jeffries Say

ELMONT, NY — In a roundtable discussion with community leaders in Elmont Monday, House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries and representative Laura Gillen said it was their expectation that a vote on a bill to extend temporary protected status for Haiti would be on the floor this week.

The vote would bring to a close months of uncertainty for Haitian nationals in the United States after a July 2025 announcement the immigration protection would be sunsetted for Haiti. Under previous conditions, Haiti had been defined by the Department of Homeland Security as a country too dangerous to return to, with the TPS designation making Haitian nationals non-removable from the country and able to obtain employment and travel authorizations. Notably, TPS does not give nationals a pathway to permanent legal status in the country, although it doesn’t prevent them from applying for it.

Subscribe

According to the National Immigration Forum, the sunsetting of Haiti’s TPS left over 348,000 Haitian nationals at risk of removal from the United States. A February court order stopped that suspension from taking effect, and Jeffries said Monday that a vote could come in the next few days.

“It’s our expectation that the bill will be on the floor at some point later on this week,” Jeffries said. “ We can trigger the vote being called upon our return, I think the date for us is Wednesday…And then, when that happens, Speaker [Mike] Johnson has to bring the bill to the floor at some point within two days. We believe the votes exist to get this done, between every single house democrat and at least four republicans, that should be enough to get us to 218, but we take nothing for granted.”

The vote, which Gillen and Jeffries said was made possible by a collaboration with four congressional republicans including Hudson Valley rep. Mike Lawler, is being brought through a discharge petition first introduced by Massachusetts congresswoman Ayanna Pressley. The discharge petition, Gillen said, requires enough members of congress to sign a petition calling for a vote that it overrides the Speaker of the House.

If passed, the petition would require a congressional committee to consider a resolution requiring that the Secretary of Homeland Security designate Haiti for TPS.

Joining Gillen and Jeffries were a pair of siblings for whom the struggle to maintain TPS hits a little closer to home: State Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages and Nassau County Legislator Carrie Solages.

"Congress has an opportunity with this upcoming vote on upholding Temporary Protected Status for Haitian nationals to stop a humanitarian crisis of unthinkable proportions in its tracks," Michaelle Solage said. "Sending people back to Haiti in its current conditions would be a profound failure of justice. We are met with a tremendous responsibility to our Haitian friends and neighbors to ensure this nightmare of living in uncertainty comes to an end. As a Haitian-American and a fellow legislator, I stand with my colleagues in Congress to urge the immediate passage of this legislation and I pledge to continue to stand against bullies and tyrants on behalf of the marginalized."

For Gillen, the introduction of a bill that would extend temporary protected status is not only an important delivery for constituents in her district, it’s a chance to follow through on an old campaign promise.

“I made a commitment to certain folks in this room that, if I was elected to congress, I would be a voice for our Haitian community in NY-04,” Gillen said. “When the president announced that he was going to end TPS, obviously this presented a dire situation for so many members of our community who would be forced to go back to what is an extraordinarily dangerous situation.”

The collaboration with Lawler, Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon, Pennsylvania’s Brian Fitzpatrick and Florida’s Maria Elvira Salazar, all republicans, was one born of pragmatism, Gillen said. Current congressional majorities make it difficult for Democratic representatives like her to bring a bill to the floor without bipartisan support. At the end of the day, however, the former Hempstead Town Supervisor said it was an important step for the people who would be impacted by a potential extension of TPS.

“Look, we have people who came here through the front door, they’re thoroughly vetted. They’re here now, they’re contributing to our communities, they’re paying taxes, and if they’re sent back to Haiti it is tantamount to a death sentence,” Gillen told Patch. “So it’s good for our economy to keep these folks here, it’s also good for their families to know they’ll be safe here in America. It’s also good for the people here under the protection of TPS, because this is expressly what that program is designed for, for people facing really dangerous situations at home.”