A small group of defectors in the House Republican caucus broke ranks and joined Democrats to advance a rebuke of President Donald Trump on a key immigration policy this week, handing the president a humiliation and a danger sign for his coalition's strength.
According to The Daily Beast, "The bill, co-introduced by Democrat Rep. Laura Gillen and Republican Rep. Michael Lawler, who both represent New York districts, would keep Haitians eligible for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for three years — a program designed for people from countries gripped by armed conflict or environmental disaster."
Alongside Lawler, other Republicans backing the discharge petition were "fellow Republican Reps. María Elvira Salazar and Carlos A. Gimenez of Florida, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Don Bacon of Nebraska, and Nicole Malliotakis, also of New York," noted the report.
Speaking to The Washington Post, Lawler, who faces a massively uphill re-election in a battleground district, explained, “I have one of the largest Haitian populations in the country in my district. 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.”
This comes after reports that the end of TPS for Haitians could devastate the health care and specifically nursing home industry, as thousands of Haitians perform jobs as key elder care workers, with much of it concentrated in the retiree-heavy state of Florida.
It also comes after Trump has spent years making racist comments about Haiti and Haitians, who are mostly Black. During the 2024 presidential election, he promoted a baseless hoax that Haitian workers in Springfield, Ohio, were eating people's pet dogs and cats.