Sanchez: Give temporary protected status to undocumented Haitians in U.S.

By Mary Sanchez

One would hope it wouldn't take a devastating act of God to force U.S. immigration officials to afford some benevolence to Haiti.

Here we are, with thousands of Haitians dead and dying. And as of this writing, Washington is still hesitant to offer the 30,000 Haitians living in the United States illegally the leniency long given to immigrants whose countries are devastated by nature. It is the opportunity to aid their country by remaining in the United States and working.

It's called temporary protected status, or TPS. Congress created it in 1990 and invoked it many times since. The idea is simple, in addition to being sensible and morally the right thing to do.

If an illegal immigrant's home country has descended into a living hell, not only is it inhumane to deport him back to that country but it also makes sense to let him work while remaining in the United States - temporarily. TPS is not permanent and is no free pass to legal status.

TPS merely lifts the scarlet letter of “illegal” for a restricted period of time. People receive work permits and can send desperately needed monies to help their country rebuild.

When Hurricane Mitch devastated Honduras and Nicaragua 1998, the countries' immigrants received TPS, as did Salvadorans in 2001 following several earthquakes. Immigrants from Somalia and the Sudan also have TPS because of ongoing wars in their countries.

A rational observer might have assumed Haiti would qualify in 2008 after no fewer than four hurricanes and tropical storms hit. At least 800 people died, and the country's GDP declined by 15 percent. “The worst disaster to hit Haiti in 100 years,” was how the United Nations described the island's predicament then.

In July, five U.S. senators wrote a letter requesting TPS for Haiti, eerily presaging what is coming to pass: “Reports indicate that food shortages could lead to riots and increased incidences of children dying of malnutrition.” One hopes that, by the time you read this, TPS will have been awarded to Haitians. Deportations to Haiti have been halted because of the earthquake.

But TPS should have been granted to Haiti long ago. Why wasn't it? It lacks political clout in Washington. A related reason is that Haiti is, as is endlessly pointed out in recent coverage of the earthquake, the poorest country in the western hemisphere.

Any mention of temporary protected status conjures in the minds of certain Americans visions of masses of poor, black foreigners swarming our shores. It's worth pointing out that TPS only applies to people already living in the United States and known to immigration authorities. (And it does not apply to people with a criminal record.) But that did not stop Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in April of last year from making this comment brushing off the question of TPS for Haitians: “We don't want to encourage other Haitians to make the dangerous journey across the water.” Forces bent on ridding the United States of anyone lacking immigration paperwork didn't miss a beat after Haiti's earthquake. Sure, give TPS to the Haitians, went the argument of FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform. But take it away from El Salvador.

Other, more realistic advocates of immigration reform, such as the National Council of La Raza, have added their support for TPS for Haitians. Groups that have long advocated for it, such as the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, have redoubled their efforts.

Better late than never. But with this olive branch, the United States is more than a year, and one earthquake late.

n Comments: msanchez@

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