Call Congress to Save 350,000 of our Haitian Neighbors from Deportation!
Haitian TPS holders strengthen our communities, workplaces, and families. Congress must act now to extend protections and prevent devastating deportations.
Haitians demanded the government prosecute those responsible for massive corruption, but the government took no action. Credit: Pierre Michel Jean/K2D.
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is trying to cancel Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 350,000 Haitians. Our Haitian neighbors who contribute to communities across the US as parents, children, church members, community members, workers and taxpayers. Cancelling TPS would immediately revoke work authorization for 200,000 workers and expose Haitians to the dangers of both the US deportation machine and a Haiti wracked by gang violence.
Haitians and their allies are fighting back in the courts, in Congress, and in the press. And they need your help. Court victories have prevented termination since August 2025, but the legal team fears that any day now the Supreme Court will grant DHS’s request that it overrule court orders that blocked the TPS termination as illegal and unconstitutionally racist.
The fight is now focused on the US House of Representatives, where Discharge Petition 15 is close to forcing a vote on a bipartisan bill to extend Haitian TPS for three years. Discharge petitions are a procedure that compel a vote on bills that House leadership is blocking, if they can obtain signatures of 218 members.
Discharge Petition 15 is very close to forcing a vote but needs your help to get over the line. 172 members have signed on and 12 more have committed to do so. The petition needs just 34 more signatures!
The discharge petition campaign got this far in a challenging political environment because Haitian-Americans and their allies have been calling on Congress relentlessly since February. The UU community has an opportunity to step up and carry the discharge petition over the finish line by calling our Representatives who have not signed, and by joining a phone banking campaign to call all targeted holdouts.
Call to Action
First, if your Representative has not signed (check here), please take 2 minutes to call today, and tomorrow, and the day after, until they do sign. And ask your friends, family and neighbors to call as well! Just dial (202) 224-3121 for the Congressional House switchboard, say your zip code and ask to be connected to your Representative. When you are connected, say “My name is ______, I live in (city/state/zip code). I am calling to urge Representative _______ to sign Discharge Petition 15, which would allow a vote on House Resolution 965, to extend Temporary Protected Status for Haitians. Time is of the essence, so I would ask Rep. _______ to sign the discharge petition the next time she/he is on the House floor for a vote. Thank you for your consideration.”
Second, join the phone banking team! The Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), a UUSC partner and collaborator, is organizing the phone banking campaign. Email Cecilia Needham, cecilia@ijdh.org, and she will provide you with everything you need to start making calls, including clear instructions, fun videos, scripts, and support. The most effective volunteers are putting in 5 or more hours a week, but if you have just one solid hour, you can make a difference.
Additional Background Information
Lawyers fear that the Supreme Court could block the court order in Miot v. Trump in the next few weeks. If that happened, DHS would immediately revoke work authorization for over 200,000 workers and expose 350,000 Haitians to the brutal deportation machine. The dangers of detention in the US were demonstrated by the unjust death of Haitian asylum seeker Emmanuel Damas in ICE custody last week after he was denied medical care for a tooth infection.
Deportation centers are only the first gauntlet Haitians will face as they are deported back to a country in a dire humanitarian crisis. This month the US FAA extended the ban on American flights into Haitian airspace through September, an indication that Haiti is not safe. Haiti faces one of the highest murder rates in the world, is one of 5 “Hunger Hot Spots” designated by the World Food Program—half of all Haitians suffer food insecurity. Over 1.5 million people—more than one in ten Haitians—have been displaced by gang violence.
In the US, ending Haitian TPS will uproot families and communities, including the families of 87,000 US citizen children with a Haitian TPS holder parent. Families will need to make agonizing choices between breaking up or subjecting children to Haiti’s dangers.
Terminating Haitian TPS will have severe negative effects on the US economy. Haitian TPS holders fill an estimated 200,000 jobs, especially in critical economic sectors such as healthcare, food processing, construction, manufacturing and hospitality that struggle to fill positions. They contribute $5.9 billion to the economy and pay $1.5 billion in taxes. Cancelling all those work authorizations will slow manufacturing and raise prices for food and healthcare. Mortgages will go unpaid, leading to foreclosures; municipalities will lose the tax revenue they depend on to provide services. Emergency rooms will be crowded with people who previously had health insurance through their jobs.
For more information on Haitian TPS, click here.
