MIAMI-DADE, Fla. – Haitians' Temporary Protected Status for is up for renewal on July 22nd. The special status allowed some 58,000 Haitians living in the U.S. to apply for a work permit and not fear deportation.
President Barack Obama approved it after the Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake. But now Haitian community leaders in South Florida like Marliene Bastien, the director of Haitian Women of Miami, fear President Donald Trump will put an end to the TPS.
"Haiti is still trying to recover" from the 7.0-magnitude quake, Bastien said during a press conference in Miami's Little Haiti on Wednesday.
Hurricane Matthew hit a rural area in the southern part of the country in October. And while the earthquake killed an estimated 300,000 and the hurricane killed about 900 people, last year's cholera outbreak killed some 9,000 people.
"Over 6-and-a-half years later, we still have people living under tents," Bastien said.
A South Florida congressional delegation sent a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security John F. Kelly in March asking him to urge Trump to extend the TPS.