Miami Her­ald Editorial

http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/1233996.html

From reli­gious and busi­ness lead­ers to local Repub­li­can and Demo­c­ra­tic mem­bers of Con­gress to hip-hop artists — all are call­ing on the Obama admin­is­tra­tion to grant tem­po­rary pro­tected sta­tus to thou­sands of undoc­u­mented Haitians liv­ing in the United States.

It’s only fair that Haitians already here receive TPS after a series of four deadly storms destroyed Haiti’s crops, left a mil­lion home­less and more than 1,000 dead last year. Deport­ing them to a coun­try that’s in cri­sis, where Haitians count on remit­tances from those able to work here, is short-sighted. And cruel.

Other immi­grant groups, such as Sal­vado­rans and Hon­durans, have been granted TPS in the past — and had it renewed — after nat­ural dis­as­ters in their coun­tries forced many to leave. In 2008, no less, the Bush admin­is­tra­tion extended TPS for Hon­duran and Sal­vado­ran nation­als because of the “lin­ger­ing effects” of Hur­ri­cane Mitch a decade ago.

How can it be that Pres­i­dent Obama and Home­land Secu­rity Sec­re­tary Janet Napoli­tano would ignore Haitians’ plight when all evi­dence indi­cates that grant­ing TPS would not open the flood­gates to more migra­tion to South Florida?

By allow­ing Haitians to remain here tem­porar­ily — and work legally — most will be able to con­tribute to rebuild­ing a coun­try in tatters.