WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Rep. Laura Gillen had bipartisan company Wednesday as she held a press conference with reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) Mike Lawler (R-NY) and Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA) in support of a discharge petition that could extend temporary protected status (TPS) for Haiti for three more years.
For Gillen, Wednesday's remarks were the latest in a string of actions in opposition to a Trump administration effort to revoke TPS, an immigration status that classifies countries as too dangerous to return to. The designation allows Haitian expats to remain in the United States and apply for permanent status, but does not create an explicit passageway to permanent residence.
According to the 4th-district representative, the question of whether or not TPS should be extended for Haiti is not just humanitarian one, but economic as well.
“Haitian Long Islanders are part of the very fabric of our communities. Haitians work in critical sectors like health care, education and caregiving, supporting our elderly and local hospitals,” Gillen said. “Many have built thriving local businesses and enriched our faith community. Before I came to Congress, I made a promise to our Haitian community in Nassau County on Long Island that I would use my voice and work with anyone to help protect this community and their existing legal status here in the United States. Removing our neighbors would not just be a humanitarian catastrophe; it would hurt our economy.”
Monday, Gillen sat with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, State Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages and Nassau County Legislator Carrie Solages at a roundtable discussion with community leaders in Elmont; the roundtable focused primarily on the issue of TPS, with Jeffries and Gillen saying a vote on the discharge petition could come this week. In that roundtable, Gillen said, members of Nassau County’s Haitian community made it clear what a failure to extend TPS would mean to them.
“We heard firsthand about the uncertainty the community is facing if TPS is not extended. It has kept hard-working, law-abiding, and taxpaying members of our community from certain death,” Gillen said. “Human lives are at risk, and families are at risk of being ripped apart. One community leader who recently traveled to Haiti said that she was not allowed to travel to Port-au-Prince, the capital city. It is so overrun by gangs and violence that you can’t even travel there.”
People forced to return to Haiti, Gillen said, would return to a country with, “No housing and no promise of securing work.”
As it stands Wednesday, Gillen and her compatriots have outlined a narrow but existent path for the discharge petition to pass through the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. The collaboration of Lawler and three other Republicans give the bill enough support to force a vote on the issue, provided there are no late defectors from either side of the aisle. While the bill’s future is still yet to be decided, Gillen said Wednesday that the effort to get the discharge petition through Congress — just the fifth successful discharge petition this congress — is one she’s proud of.
“I am proud that, with the partnership of my Democratic and Republican colleagues, including Representatives Ayanna Pressley and Mike Lawler, we were able to move a discharge petition in the House to extend TPS for Haitians,” Gillen said. “This week, we are going around House leadership and Speaker Mike Johnson with the intention to pass the very first bill that I introduced in Congress and deliver on a promise that I made before taking office to protect TPS for Haiti."
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