Legislators advocate for Haitian immigrants

A group of five U.S. lawmakers urged the Obama administration to enact Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian migrants.

The bipartisan delegation of Democratic and Republican Representatives from south Florida traveled to Haiti this week. There, they met with President René Préval and other diplomatic and military officials during the quick one-day visit.

As Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart observed, the White House would do well by revising the State Department travel warning to the Caribbean country as well as granting TPS to an estimated 30,000 Haitians:

"It's a beautiful country, Haiti, with an extraordinary history and one of the ways in which they are going to lift themselves up from poverty is with tourism," the Herald quoted him saying. "I would urge and I will, the Obama administration, the State Department to review that policy because the lack of security that has been at the cause of the warning to U.S. tourists has been improved."

Haitian exile groups, immigrant advocates, and even celebrities have long called for permitting TPS to Haitians. U.S. immigration officials under Obama and his predecessor have continually rejected requests for granting TPS.

Image- LAHT
Online Sources- CBS4.com, The Latin Americanist, UPI, Miami Herald