By Terell Wright and Michelle Hackman
WASHINGTON -- The House passed a bipartisan measure Thursday that would reinstate temporary legal protections for Haitian immigrants living in the U.S., with 11 members of the Republican conference breaking with the Trump administration to side with Democrats on the measure.
The 224-204 vote marks a rare GOP rebuke of President Trump's agenda. Trump maligned Haitian immigrants on the campaign trail and moved to strip their legal protections, known as Temporary Protected Status, soon after taking office. The bill will next head to the Senate, where the prospects for a vote are unclear.
Roughly 350,000 Haitians are currently covered by the program, which offers them work permits and a shield from deportation while it is in effect. After Trump revoked the status for Haitians, their protections were set to expire in February, though the termination of the program has been halted pending a Supreme Court case this term.
The bill passed by the House would extend TPS protections for Haitians by law for another three years. It wouldn't address Trump's revocation of TPS protections for immigrants from several other countries, including Venezuela, Honduras and Afghanistan.
"Haitian TPS holders are not the problem. Quite the contrary. They are part of the solution. They are not our enemies. They do not exploit our nation. They enhance it," said Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D., Mass.).
New York Republican Rep. Mike Lawler introduced the measure with Rep. Laura Gillen (D., N.Y.). Lawler, who has defended Haitian immigrants in his Hudson Valley constituency, holds one of the most vulnerable Republican-held seats in the House.
Nebraska Republican Rep. Don Bacon, who is retiring, voted for the measure. He said the removal of temporary protected status would affect workplaces in Nebraska, including in the healthcare industry, that are already facing serious staff shortages.
"I don't see the goodness of deporting people who are here legally, working, and contributing to our country," Bacon said in a social-media post.
Other Republicans disagreed.
"The only discharge petition I will support is the one that discharges all of these people back to Haiti," said Rep. Randy Fine (R., Fla.) on the House floor before the Thursday vote.
The measure would almost certainly face a veto by Trump, whose Department of Homeland Security had moved to end the TPS protections for Haitians.
Trump has softened his hard line on immigration issues in the wake of the operation in Minnesota, when federal agents shot and killed two American citizens protesting their presence in the city. But his administration hasn't backed down on major legal maneuvers to strip immigrants of protections that allow them legally to work.
Later this month, the Supreme Court is hearing a case on the administration's continued plan to end TPS protections for Haitians and Syrians, though the case's outcome could have broader implications for the up to 1.3 million immigrants in the U.S. currently covered by the status.
Established by Congress in 1990, the program allows the president to grant temporary protections to people from countries facing war or other disasters where they can't safely return. Since the late 1990s, immigrants from several countries, including El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, have enjoyed continued protections, with successive presidents renewing them every 18 months.
Trump and many other Republicans have argued that the program has outlasted its usefulness, since it is meant only to offer short-term protections in acute situations, but hundreds of thousands of immigrants have come to rely on it for decades.
DHS said last year that it wanted to revoke the status because it was against the national interest for Haitian nationals to temporarily remain in the country. During the 2024 campaign, Trump fanned baseless rumors that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating dogs.
Democrats forced a vote on the matter by getting a majority of the House to sign a discharge petition, needed to bypass GOP leaders' control of the floor. The maneuver has been used increasingly in recent years, as intraparty disagreements with leadership and narrow majorities have made it a potent procedural weapon. Last year, a discharge petition was used to force a vote on releasing the Justice Department's files on Jeffrey Epstein.
Write to Terell Wright at terell.wright@wsj.com and Michelle Hackman at michelle.hackman@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 16, 2026 14:28 ET (18:28 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Comments