In a rebuke to President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda, the U.S. House of Representatives passed bipartisan legislation led by Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley to extend temporary protected status for Haitians to April 2029.
In a vote of 224-204 on Thursday, the House passed a discharge petition to extend the embattled status for three years on Thursday, which would allow at least 19,000 Haitians in Massachusetts to remain in the U.S. Ten Republicans voted in favor.
“Along with the Republicans and the independents that we were ultimately able to enlist in this cause in defense of our Haitian neighbors, it was a tremendous feat,” Pressley told GBH News in an interview Thursday afternoon. She pointed to the State Department’s guidance advising Americans against traveling to Haiti due to civil unrest.
“The country is destabilized, and sending anyone there — deporting anyone there — is a death sentence.”
The procedural tool hit the signature threshold it needed in March to bypass Republican leadership and bring the measure to the floor. The petition advances an underlying bill introduced in 2025 by Democratic Rep. Laura Gillen of New York, co-sponsored by Republican Mike Lawler of New York, which would require the Department of Homeland Security to extend temporary protected status, or TPS, for Haitians until 2029.
“Under this Republican majority, given the obstruction and dysfunction, discharge petitions have been a legislative tool used more frequently to try to advance legislation,” said Pressley, noting it requires 218 signatures. “Given how slim our margins are, that in and of itself is not an easy feat,” she said. In 40 years there have only been 15 discharge petitions to hit that threshold.
The measure goes to the Senate for consideration, where there’s no set timeline. If it passes the Senate, it would also go to President Trump, who would likely veto the bill, requiring an override of a two-third majority in both chambers before it became law.
Greater Boston has the nation’s third-largest Haitian population, according to World Population Review’s 2023 data. A large percentage of the state’s Haitians have TPS, and work in health care and food services, filling key jobs in those field.
“This is such a huge relief, and it’s a huge step,” said Dr. Geralde Gabeau, founder and executive director of the nonprofit Immigrant Family Services Institute, which is based out of Mattapan. Her organization works with Haitian immigrants of various statuses, including many TPS holders.
“I was praying for it to occur because I know this is one of the strategies that could definitely protect the thousands of my compatriots,” said Pastor “Keke” Dieufort Fleurissaint, founder of the True Alliance Center, a nonprofit focused on helping Haitian immigrants with housing, health and legal services.
“It looks to be the powerful affirmation that the voices of the people combining with the officials still matter in our democracy,” he said.
TPS has faced a complex legal battle
Temporary protected status allows immigrants from designated countries to live in the U.S. for up to 18 months when their country is unsafe to return to. Anyone from those countries can apply if they’re in the U.S. since a designated date. Those designations can be extended, and immigrants can apply for renewal. The Department of Homeland Security has voided designations for at least 10 countries, including Haiti and Syria.
Last year, the Trump administration moved to terminate TPS for Haiti early, instead of its original end date. A New York judge blocked that effort. Instead, the government issued a Federal Register notice saying the protections would expire in February 2026, and that the country no longer met the conditions to continue it.
This February, federal Judge Ana Reyes allowed granted plaintiffs’ renewed motion to stay the government’s termination pending further judicial review.
That allowed Haitians whose TPS expired in February to keep working and living here legally, although there was some confusion at first. In March, an appeals court upheld that ruling.
Now, a consolidated case with Syrian TPS holders (Miot v. Trump) will be heard before the Supreme Court on April 29.
“We know it’s a long fight,” said Gabeau of IFSI in Mattapan. “However, every step of the way, every single victory is a way to really kind of bring awareness to the entire body of the Supreme Court so that they understand that it’s not just about policies. It’s about people’s lives.”
Pressley said that of the the Haitians in the United States, 20% work in health care, “bridging the critical workforce gaps that define our caregiving crisis.”
“This is not just about the fate of 350,000 Haitian nationals,” she told GBH of the Trump administration terminating the legal status. “This would ostensibly undermine the health care industry, the construction industry, and [leave] the hospitality industry, all but decimated”
Pressley serves as co-chair for the House Haiti Caucus and represents one of the largest Haitian diaspora communities in the country, many of whom live in Mattapan in Boston.
She also filed an amicus brief in the US Supreme Court with Senators Ed Markey, Chris Van Hollen, and Rep Wasserman Schultz this week.
