Marco Rubio Leading Effort in Congress for Continued Temporary Amnesty for Haitian Nationals

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Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is helping to lead the effort in Congress to lobby the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to continue de facto amnesty known as Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian nationals.

In a letter to DHS Acting Secretary Elaine Duke, Rubio — along with six Democrats and three Republicans — demands that the estimated 86,000 Haitian nationals be granted another temporary amnesty to remain in the U.S. for a year and a half.

The letter states:

Dear Acting Secretary Duke,

We write again to urge you to extend for a full 18 months Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians currently living in the United States. We appreciated the opportunity to meet with you and discuss the need for an extension. As you prepare to make a determination on extension, we encourage you to consider the full range of factors permitted under the law.

The need for a full extension is clear. Haiti—the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere—continues to recover from the devastating 2010 earthquake which killed more than 200,000 people and displaced more than a million. To this day, Haiti struggles to combat an outbreak of cholera introduced by United Nations relief workers following the earthquake that has already killed more than 10,000 people.

The extensive damage caused by Hurricane Matthew in 2016 only made Haiti’s recovery more difficult. For example, Matthew, a major hurricane, destroyed much of Haiti’s food crops, leaving millions of Haitians food insecure, according to some estimates. We believe that these persistent, difficult conditions in Haiti warrant a full extension, and that the law allows you to consider these factors among others in making a determination.

Furthermore, the Government of Haiti has requested an extension as it works to fully recover and rebuild for the benefit of all its people. We owe it to the Haitian people to assist them in their efforts, especially as they begin to make limited progress. Haiti simply cannot absorb the premature return of 60,000 people at once.

We share your concern for the welfare of the Haitian people. They are valuable members of our communities and families. Thank you for your consideration of this important matter.

Sincerely,

Sens. Bill Nelson (D-FL), Marco Rubio (R-FL) Reps. Ted Deutch (D-FL), Mario Diaz Balart (R-FL), Carlos Curbelo (R-FL), Lois Frankel (D-FL), Alcee Hastings (D-FL), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) and Frederica Wilson (D-FL)

The letter has been touted by the New American Economy organization, a cheap labor, open borders organization fronted by billionaires J.W. Marriot Jr., Michael Bloomberg, and Rupert Murdoch.

Under TPS, Haitian nationals have been able to remain in the United States since 1999, due to a hurricane, under the temporary amnesty program. Under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, the TPS program for Haitians was regularly extended continuously.

As Breitbart News reported, Duke not only refused to end the temporary amnesty for Haitian nationals, but she also advocated for a permanent amnesty solution that could set all foreign nationals in the TPS program on a pathway to U.S. citizenship.

Duke has allowed for an “automatic” six-month temporary amnesty for the Haitian nationals after failing to make a decision on whether or not the individuals are now safe from the 1999 hurricane.

This week, DHS is expected to announce its decision on whether or not the program will be ended for Haitians.

Rubio has been a prominent ally within the Republican Party to the open borders and big business lobby. In 2013, Rubio infamously co-authored one of the biggest amnesties for illegal aliens since the 1980s, giving a pathway to U.S. citizenship to the estimated 12 to 30 million illegal aliens in the country.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.

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