Biden is extending protections for Haitian nationals to live and work in the U.S. for 18 months, overturning another Trump immigration initiative.
Another Weekend in Wilmington.
The People’s House just isn’t home for this president: On Saturday, May 22, President Joe Biden made an 11:10 a.m. departure to again spend the weekend in Wilmington, Delaware. As of day 122 in office, Biden had spent eight weekends in Wilmington, five weekends at Camp David in Maryland, and five weekends at the White House.
Biden Extends Immigration Protections for Haitians.
Biden’s homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced that Temporary Protected Status (TPS) will be extended another 18 months for immigrants from Haiti, providing relief for those already in the program and allowing more eligible Haitians “and individuals without nationality who last resided in Haiti” to apply for TPS. At this point, the program is not available to anyone arriving after May 21, but will give those who are already in the United States eighteen more months to legally work and reside.
The Haiti TPS program began in 2010 under former president Barack Obama. Former president Donald Trump fought to wind the program down, but a series of lawsuits prevented the ruling from taking effect.
Mayorkas’s statement cited “a political crisis and human rights abuses; serious security concerns; and the COVID-19 pandemic’s exacerbation of a dire economic situation and lack of access to food, water, and healthcare,” as well as the lingering effects of the 2010 earthquakes, as justification for the extended designation.
Senators Bob Menendez and Marco Rubio lobbied Biden to extend the protections in March.
“As the United States engages with the Haitian government to help chart a way forward, a TPS redesignation would provide a much-needed reprieve for upwards of 55,000 Haitians in the United States,” the senators wrote. “It would also lessen the burden on the Haitian people, government, and aid organizations, and mitigate risks of further destabilization.”
