MIAMI-DADE – Members of the Miami-Dade County Community Relations Board’s Fair Immigration Committee will be joined by County Commissioner Audrey M. Edmonson and community activists for a press conference this Thursday (Nov. 20) to encourage the Bush Administration to grant Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Haitians.
“Elected officials, community leaders and advocates from a cross-section of Miami-Dade’s immigrant communities will be calling for action on behalf of those who are still suffering the devastation of natural disasters in Haiti,” CRB Chair Rev. Dr. Harold Vieux told members of the board’s Fair Immigration Committee last week. “Haitians who are currently in the United States should not be expected to return to their homeland which remains devastated from the four hurricanes of this summer.” Haiti’s President has told President Bush that the country is not able to absorb refugees deported from the United States.
“The current situation in Haiti has created a humanitarian crisis that we in Miami-Dade County cannot ignore,“ Dr. Vieux said. “Our community leaders and activists must come together to help raise public awareness of the need to provide a safe haven for Haitians who are currently in the United States. Now that the Presidential elections are over, the time is right to renew our calls for the current administration to act. The President of Haiti has asked our nation to help. The Haitian people are suffering now. They do not have the resources to wait for a new administration to do the right thing.”
