The U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation Thursday to extend deportation protections for Haitian immigrants with the help of all three of Miami’s Republican members of Congress, marking a significant victory for advocates but leaving the measure’s future uncertain in the Senate.

The measure, which was pushed by House Democrats and would protect as many as 350,000 Haitians from deportation, now goes to the Senate, where it faces a tough fight. Even if it passes there, the legislation still has to get past President Donald Trump, who moved to stop Haiti’s temporary protected status, or TPS, and has asked the Supreme Court to empower him to end it even while a lawsuit is being litigated in lower courts.

The House passed the measure 224–204, with ten Republicans breaking ranks to join Democrats in support, including South Florida lawmakers María Elvira Salazar, Carlos Giménez and Mario Díaz-Balart. All three are up for reelection in districts in Miami that include large Haitian communities, underscoring the political stakes of the vote and its direct implications for South Florida.

TPS provides a lawful status and access to work permits for foreign nationals whose countries are experiencing conflict, disasters, or other extreme conditions that prevent safe and voluntary returns.

The bill, H.R. 1689, would require the Department of Homeland Security to designate Haiti for TPS, allowing eligible Haitian nationals in the United States to remain in the country and obtain work authorization. The push follows the Trump administration’s 2025 decision to terminate Haiti’s TPS designation and set an end date of Feb. 3, 2026, a move that has been challenged in court and remains legally uncertain as part of a broader effort to wind down TPS protections for Haiti.

Lawmakers brought the measure to the floor through a rare maneuver known as a discharge petition, which allows a bill to bypass House leadership, after supporters secured the 218 signatures needed to force the vote.

The TPS vote is the latest in a string of issues on which Salazar has split with Trump, primarily around immigration. She has repeatedly warned that his hard-line mass deportation agenda is going to blow back against Republicans in the midterm elections in November. She holds one of the three Florida congressional seats Democrats believe they could flip in November.

“Here at home in South Florida, Haitian TPS holders are part of the backbone of our workforce, especially in critical sectors like healthcare,” Salazar wrote in a statement. “This is not theoretical for us. When people cannot safely return, Congress has a responsibility to act.”

Díaz-Balart was the only Miami-area Republican to vote against the measure during a procedural vote on the petition Wednesday. But he switched over to support the proposal by Thursday’s vote. He has been a leading supporter of providing financial assistance to Haiti through the Organization of American States and the Armed Forces of Haiti. His office did not respond to a request for comment about TPS.

“I’m proud of my bipartisan track record — because doing what’s right shouldn’t be about politics, it should be about people,” Giménez said in a statement after the vote. “Haitian migrants are not strangers — they are our neighbors, our coworkers, and part of the fabric of our community.”

The fast-tracked discharge petition process in the House does not guarantee a Senate vote. It’s now up to the Republican-controlled Senate leadership to decide whether to put the resolution up for committee consideration or an eventual vote.

Supporters framed the vote as both a policy effort and a political response to the Trump administration’s 2025 decision to terminate Haiti’s TPS designation. Federal courts have blocked attempts by the administration to terminate the protections for Haitian nationals in the U.S., with judges citing procedural failures and ongoing instability in Haiti as key concerns.

Later this month, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments over the planned termination of TPS for Haiti and Syria.

The House bill approved Thursday would require Homeland Security to designate Haiti for TPS for 18 months beginning Aug. 3, 2025, effectively continuing protections that have been repeatedly extended since the program was first created for Haiti in 2010 after a devastating earthquake.

Humanitarian groups say conditions in Haiti remain dire. Alice Ribes, emergency country director for the International Rescue Committee in Haiti, said millions continue to face a worsening crisis marked by escalating violence, hunger and starvation, forced displacement of people from their homes and outbreaks of disease. Public services in many areas have collapsed under gang control, leaving residents without reliable access to clean water, food, medical care, or education.

Ribes described the daily trade-offs facing families: parents choosing between their children’s safety and schooling, patients forced to forgo potentially lifesaving care, and pregnant women weighing the risks of traveling long distances for safe water against using nearby contaminated sources. She said those conditions underscore why TPS protections remain essential for Haitians currently living in the United States.

Advocates say the House bill also serves as a broader push to defend TPS protections, which have been targeted or rolled back under the Trump administration across multiple countries. In addition to Haitians, immigrants from at least 17 nationalities — including Venezuelans, Nicaraguans, and Hondurans —have faced uncertainty over their legal status.

U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, who led the discharge petition effort to bring the bill to a vote, said the measure is intended to protect families and force congressional action on what she described as a humanitarian crisis.

Despite the bill’s long odds for final approval, for many advocates and lawmakers the vote represents a form of political pressure and public accountability — an effort to elevate the issue of TPS protections and highlight the potential consequences for immigrant communities if those protections are allowed to lapse.

For South Florida, home to one of the largest communities of Haitians living abroad, the stakes remain especially high.

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