Legislation that would restore temporary legal status for Haitian migrants advanced in the House on Wednesday after a handful of Republicans helped Democrats in a largely party-line vote.
The bill, spearheaded by Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) and other House Democrats, cleared a procedural vote with the help of several Republicans who moved to reverse the Trump administration’s decision to end temporary protected status for Haiti.
Ordinarily, GOP leadership would have control over what gets a vote on the House floor, but Democrats were able to skirt that decision-making using a tool known as a discharge petition. The 219-209 vote likely clears the way for final passage later this week.
“In the last 40 years, only 15 discharge petitions have reached this threshold,” Pressley said at a press conference. “The progress is testament to the strength of our movement, the power of our collective action, and our bipartisan solidarity in this fight.”
“Today, we take this fight to the House floor to move this forward, because the stakes could not be higher right now — more than 350,000 Haitian nationals living in the United States face the threat of losing temporary protected status,” she continued.
Four Republicans originally joined all Democrats to reach the 218-signature threshold needed for a discharge petition, and each supported the bill on the floor Wednesday. Those Republicans were Reps. Mike Lawler (R-NY), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Don Bacon (R-NE), and Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL). Reps. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) and Carlos Gimenez (R-FL) also voted “yes.”
“To me, this is common sense to address a very specific issue, to extend TPS and allow the process to work,” Lawler, who represents a district with the second-largest Haitian diaspora per capita in the country, said at the press conference. “This is currently in the court system, but I think Congress has a responsibility to act. Our immigration system has been broken for 40 years. It needs to be fixed.”
The bill aims to extend temporary status for three years, until 2029, after Trump announced last year that he would terminate the protections for Haitians in the United States with an end date in February. The decision has since been blocked or delayed by the courts, leaving the status in place for the time being.
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TPS is a program that gives certain immigrants temporary permission to stay and work in the U.S. due to unsafe conditions in their home country. It can be granted due to natural disasters, armed conflict, or other factors.
The Forum, a coalition of immigration-related groups, notes that as of March 2025, more than 330,000 Haitians had been granted protected status under the program.