Kansas Secretary of State and candidate for governor Kris Kobach says President Donald Trump’s administration should not have delayed the departure of 59,000 migrant Haitian nationals for another 18 months.
In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, Kobach said he was disappointed with the decision by DHS Acting Secretary Elaine Duke, a former President George W. Bush official, to let the Haitian nationals remain in the U.S. until July 2019 under the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program.
“President Trump’s core message is restoring the Rule of Law in immigration and the law demands that the TPS program only be used temporarily and only during a period where it is unsafe for foreign nationals to return to their country,” Koback told Breitbart News. “That is not the case with Haiti,” he said, adding:
When Congress wrote the TPS law, they stated quite clearly that as soon as a TPS designation is not renewed, the aliens have 60 days before the decision takes effect. Not 18 months. I’m pleased that Secretary Duke ended the TPS designation for Haiti, but the law does not permit her to choose any effective date she wishes. The law is quite clear. It must be 60 days, not 18 months.
As Breitbart News reported, Haitian nationals have been able to remain in the United States since 2010 under the temporary amnesty program because of the 2010 earthquake.
Under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, the TPS program for Haitians was regularly extended. It was the Bush administration and Obama’s administration that “gravely weakened the Rule of Law” when it comes to immigration, Kobach says.
Though DHS says TPS for Haitians will end July 2019, Kobach says there is nothing in the legal statute that keeps a future DHS secretary — likely to be former Bush official Kirstjen Nielsen — from extending the temporary amnesty once again.
The DHS move leaves nearly a two-year window now for the open borders lobby and big business interest to team up with the Democrat and GOP political establishments to push a permanent amnesty for TPS recipients.
This end goal has repeatedly been touted by DHS senior officials, though Kobach says it reveals how Beltway insiders see the supposed “temporary” program.
“The fact that people are talking about finding a ‘permanent solution’ illustrates that they see TPS as de facto amnesty because they’re looking for a way to keep TPS recipients in the United States,” Kobach said. “That is a gross abuse of our laws. TPS was never intended to be used like this.”
Behind the push to continue extending temporary amnesty for Haitian nationals, and other foreign nationals from Central America is the corporate interest group “New American Economy,” which advocates a greater inflow of low-wage workers and welfare-aided consumers.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) also led an effort in Congress to lobby DHS to extend the temporary amnesty program for Haitians, Breitbart News reported, going as far as to write a letter to DHS officials, pleading for the amnesty.
Mainstream, corporate media also played a role in lobbying DHS to keep thousands of Haitians from being deported, with the New York Times editors releasing an editorial that demanded the agency extend protections for the foreign nationals and also eventually push to give them permanent amnesty in the United States.
Editor’s note: This article was updated following DHS’s announcement.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
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