Designation of Haiti for Temporary Protected Status

Floor Speech

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Mr. TIFFANY. Mr. Speaker, isn't it interesting that we are here debating TPS for Haiti today? It is interesting because the t in TPS stands for ``temporary.'' It has never been intended as a rolling, multigenerational amnesty program. Yet, that is exactly what it has become: an amnesty program.

In fact, during the 4 years of the Biden-Harris administration, this tool was used to extend de facto amnesty to more than 1 million aliens who entered this country without a visa. If this bill is passed, which was originally declared by President Obama in 2010, it will be extended yet again, this time through the end of the decade.

That is 20 years. That does not sound temporary.

Yet, it isn't just Haiti. Every Democrat administration has abused TPS. There are currently 1.5 million aliens from a dozen countries present in the United States under TPS designations, some of which began decades ago.

Somalia's TPS was first extended during the administration of George H.W. Bush in 1991, back when Paula Abdul and Bryan Adams topped the Billboard Top 40 charts. It remains in place yet today, thanks to an activist judge.

President Clinton gave TPS to Hondurans in 1999, when Microsoft had just replaced General Electric as America's most valuable company and gas was 92 cents a gallon. That designation lasted more than a quarter century and was only terminated last year after a lengthy court battle.

President Clinton's successor, George W. Bush, granted TPS to nationals of El Salvador in 2001, a full year before the BlackBerry smartphone would hit store shelves. That designation also continues, despite the fact that El Salvador's tourism ministry openly promotes posh, all-inclusive, luxury resorts and boasts one of the lowest homicide rates in our hemisphere. This is absurd.

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Mr. TIFFANY. Mr. Speaker, TPS was never intended to be the Hotel California that allows illegal aliens to enter any time but they may never leave. It is time to put the t back in TPS and close this permanent administrative amnesty loophole.

I ask for a ``no'' vote on this bill.

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