Anthony Formicola, a fifth year Northeastern University student, recently wrote an article in the Huntington News discussing the temporary protected status of Haitians, which is under threat.
In the recent torrent of national debate over immigration policies, Northeastern students might have missed the termination of Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, for 59,000 Haitians in the United States. In July 2019, this displaced contingent will be asked, or forced, to leave the country and return to their homes in Haiti. However, home does not look the same for these people. With that truth in mind, our government should not abandon its protection of these Haitians; instead, it should grant them a long-term extension of TPS.
It has been just over eight years since a massive earthquake struck Haiti on Jan. 12, 2010, which leveled the nation’s capital, Port-au-Prince, and killed hundreds of thousands of Haitians in 30 seconds. One might imagine that eight years is an ample amount of time to recover from a catastrophe, but the deck is severely stacked against Haiti’s restoration efforts. Extreme poverty, a constant string of natural disasters and a cholera epidemic define the Haitian reality. Every step forward is accompanied by a step backward… [Read More]
Op-Ed: Renew U.S. temporary protected status for Haitians
The original publication from February 14, 2018 in the Huntington News can be seen here.