Six so-called “Republicans” voted Wednesday alongside Democrats to advance legislation that would extend Temporary Protected Status for Haitian migrants despite the Trump administration’s efforts to end the widely exploited program.
Republican Reps. Don Bacon (Neb.), Brian Fitzpatrick (Penn.), Mike Lawler (N.Y.), Maria Elvira Salazar (Fla.), Carlos Gimenez (Fla.) and Nicole Malliotakis (N.Y.) voted alongside Democrats to pass Democrat Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley’s discharge petition that would extend TPS for Haitians until April of 2029.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) told Newsweek she voted to extend TPS for Haitians because she thinks of America as an economic opportunity zone.
“These are Haitian immigrants who are working, paying taxes and contributing to our economy and fulfilling a healthcare need,” she said, claiming Haitians are filling alleged employment gaps in nursing homes. “To strip them of their status and deport them to a country in peril would be uncompassionate and misguided.”
TPS is supposed to be a “temporary” and narrow program for migrants fleeing nations experiencing war, unrest or natural disasters in their native countries. Haiti was granted TPS in 2010 after an earthquake, though presidents have extended the protections over things like political instability and violence. But as Hart Celler explained in these pages, while “Designations must last between 6 and 18 months … the law is silent on how long a designation should last once conditions improve — a silence that has allowed TPS to become a revolving door of indefinite extensions for some …”
The program has been exploited to bring in alleged murderers, like the one accused of using a hammer to bludgeon a woman to death at a Florida gas station earlier this month. Surveillance footage appears to show Haitian national Rolbert Joachim approaching an unsuspecting gas station clerk on April 3 and then beating her to death with a hammer within two minutes.
Joachim illegally entered the United States at the southern border in 2022, was caught, and an immigration judge later ordered him deported. But the Biden administration “shielded him from deportation by granting him Temporary Protected Status, which expired in 2024,” according to Fox News’ Bill Melugin. While Joachim’s status lapsed before the alleged murder, the killing underscores just how the program has been abused and exploited.
The Trump administration has sought to end the exploitation and abuse but has been blocked by lower courts. Biden-appointed U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes issued a ruling in February blocking the administration from ending TPS for the same 350,000 Haitians that six spineless Republicans now seek to protect.
The Supreme Court is set to hear oral argument on a pair of cases regarding TPS to decide whether to pause lower court rulings (like Reyes’) until after arguments on the merits have been made. The Supreme Court has already issued two separate rulings staying lower court injunctions that tried to prevent Trump from ending TPS for some Venezuelans.
In the meantime, though, six Republicans are seeking to get ahead of a potential Supreme Court decision in the Trump administration’s favor by backstabbing their country and party to vote alongside Democrats.
Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2
