(Los Angeles, CA) – Thomas A. Saenz, president and general counsel of MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund), issued the following statement today in response to the Trump Administration's announcement that it will end temporary protected status (TPS) for refugees displaced by a devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti:
“Yesterday's announcement of the termination in July 2019 of TPS for Haitian refugees further demonstrates this Administration's inability to make discretionary decisions that are well-informed and that consider appropriate concerns. Not surprising with a president who has no regard for factually accurate information whatsoever and who is more concerned about boosting his ego through bullying coercion and through reckless appeals to the worst instincts and beliefs of a thin line of people who applaud him for every nativist pronouncement. The Congress must intervene to protect populations that have built lives and families here over many years, and to establish enforceable standards of both process and substance to frame future discretionary decisions on TPS. Extant law rests on the assumption, now plainly challenged, of reasonable and humane exercises of discretion.”