By US Conference of Catholic Bishops -
WASHINGTON, D.C. | The U.S. bishops' Justice for Immigrants campaign is asking Catholics to contact Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly to request the extension of Temporary Protected Status for over 58,000 Haitians currently residing in the U.S.
A letter to Secretary Kelly from Cardinal Sean O'Malley and other Catholic bishops, including Archbishop Thomas Wenski, noted that Haiti "continues to suffer from food insecurity, a lack of safe water, a cholera epidemic, and damaged schools and infrastructure" due to the January 2010 earthquake, and compounded by Hurricane Matthew's passage last October.
News outlets last month reported that a South Florida charity had found 240 starving Haitians living in caves.
TPS was originally granted within days of the 7.0 magnitude earthquake, and most recently extended Jan. 23, 2016, for a period of 18 months. TPS will expire July 22 of this year if the current administration does not renew it.
"Unfortunately, there are reports that certain high-level government officials are recommending that TPS be terminated for Haitians," said the action alert from the bishops' Justice for Immigrants campaign. The campaign also wrote to Secretary Kelly on behalf of its partner organizations: the U.S. bishops' Migration and Refugee Services, Catholic Relief Services, Catholic Charities USA, and CLINIC (the Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc.).
"As Haitians cannot be safely returned to Haiti at this time, our nation has a moral responsibility to provide continued temporary protection," the Justice for Immigrants letter states. "Given the current country conditions in Haiti, terminating TPS would be inhumane and untenable. We ask you to show compassion and patience during Haiti’s path to recovery."
The letter also notes that terminating TPS now "would undoubtedly destabilize the small nation and potentially bring harm to those returned... (It) would needlessly create a large unauthorized Haitian population in the U.S., lead to family separation, and cause DHS to expend resources and detention bed space on individuals who are already registered with our government and whose safe return is forestalled by dire humanitarian conditions. Furthermore, not extending TPS would strain American communities that have significant Haitian populations."
The action alert urges Catholics to write directly to Secretary Kelly, and providing a link to a message that can be sent to him by email or printed letter. Here is the link to the action alert and more in-depth information on the issue.
