Designation of Haiti for Temporary Protected Status

Floor Speech

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Mr. GILL of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I vehemently oppose this backdoor amnesty bill that would allow hundreds of thousands of Haitians who entered our country illegally to be given de facto amnesty.

Temporary protected status, as its name implies, was originally designed to be just that, temporary. Yet, it has metastasized into what is effectively a permanent amnesty program for unvetted foreigners all over the globe. That is exactly what this bill extends.

Who are these people that this bill applies to? There are roughly 350,000 Haitians covered under temporary protected status in the United States. Of those, an estimated 91 percent entered this country illegally. An estimated 69 percent came in under the Biden administration.

In other words, what this bill does is codify the open borders of the previous administration that the American people overwhelmingly rejected in the last election cycle.

Mr. Speaker, no serious country tolerates virtually unlimited numbers of foreigners breaking and entering. Yet, that is what this bill does.

More fundamentally, Mr. Speaker, the purpose of our immigration system is to benefit our people. It is for the benefit of Americans. We have no obligation to allow anybody from any part of the globe to come into America. When they do, they come in on our terms, for our benefit.

Let's ask ourselves: Does mass migration from Haiti benefit the American people? The answer is obviously no. Sixty-five percent of nonimmigrant Haitian-headed households are on welfare. Does that make America stronger, more prosperous, or more wealthy in any way? Of course, it doesn't.

Yet, we are being asked to give them amnesty and make these absolutely horrendous years of open borders effectively permanent.

Mr. Speaker, the central thesis of the last election cycle was the American people rejecting mass migration. That is why they gave the President the popular vote. That is why Republicans have a trifecta, and we ought to listen to them.

The American people want their country back. The American people are tired of sending their kids to school where an unlimited number of children are speaking foreign languages or schools that are flooded with fentanyl because of open borders.

Mr. Speaker, we want to live in America. That is why I reject this bill, and I hope my colleagues will, as well.

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