Several House Republicans joined Democrats to oppose President Donald Trump on his immigration policy Thursday, voting to restore temporary protections for some 350,000 Haitians living in the United States.
Ten Republicans voted with 213 House Democrats and one independent to extend temporary protected status, or TPS, for Haitians for three years. The program is intended for foreign nationals from countries facing dangerous conditions, such as armed conflict and environmental disasters.
The vote was forced using an increasingly popular legislative tool called a discharge petition that allows 218 or more representatives to circumvent the House speaker to bring a vote to the floor.
“I have one of the largest Haitian populations in the country in my district,” Rep. Michael Lawler (R-New York) said Wednesday before voting to push the bill to the House floor. “… If you end [temporary protections] without addressing work authorization, it will cause a huge crisis in our health care system, especially in an area like mine, where a lot of our Haitian TPS holders are nurses.”
As the vote closed Thursday, Rep. Laura Gillen (D-New York), who first introduced the measure to reinstate temporary protected status for Haitians, was surrounded by other Democrats who aided her effort, including Rep. Ayanna Pressley (Massachusetts).
Lawler joined Gillen’s effort noting that Haitian immigrants contribute largely to the health care industry in his district. He was joined by nine other Republicans, including Reps. María Elvira Salazar and Carlos A. Gimenez of Florida, who have also pushed for some protections for legal migrants.
The move to help Haitian immigrants faces an uncertain fate in the Senate, but the House vote demonstrates rare Republican willingness to break with the White House. It is the first time GOP members have voted to invalidate Trump’s tougher immigration policies this legislative term.
Discharge petitions have found increasing success this Congress. At least five have received the required 218 signatures — including one this past fall to release the FBI’s records on the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Only two received sufficient signatures in the last Congress, from 2023 to 2025.
The Trump administration announced an end to temporary protections for Haitians in June, arguing that conditions in Haiti have improved since the establishment of protections after the 2010 earthquake and calling the country “safe.” But lower courts stepped in, pausing the termination of the protections, which the Trump administration has appealed to the Supreme Court. The high court will hear arguments on April 29.
Immigration advocates say gang violence and civil unrest could pose serious danger to Haitians forced to leave the United States. Meanwhile, the elder care and health care industries, which rely heavily on Haitians with temporary protections, have also lobbied against the ending of the program.
Trump has repeatedly criticized Haitian immigrants over the years. Last week, Trump shared on social media a video of a fatal attack by a man who the administration says is from Haiti on a woman at a Florida gas station, saying that Democratic policies led to the alleged killer gaining temporary protections in the U.S.
Riley Beggin contributed to this report.
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