‘Illegals first’: Senate Republicans blast Schumer’s gambit to force vote on protecting Haitian migrants

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wants to extend protections for Haitian migrants, and Republicans say it’s a perfect example of him putting the interests of illegal immigrants over Americans. 

Schumer fast-tracked a House-passed bill that would extend the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) of Haitian migrants for three years earlier this week onto the Senate schedule. Whether it actually makes it to the floor is ultimately up to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.

The top Senate Democrat’s desire to pass the legislation in the Senate comes at an inflection point for both the protected status of Haitian migrants and a funding battle started, in part, over immigration operations in the country. 

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Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., who led negotiations for Senate Republicans to try to strike a compromise deal to end the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown, told Fox News Digital, “I’m so glad that he is prioritizing people who are not American consistently.”

“What about the countless Americans that have died at the hands of illegal aliens? I mean, the fact that you’re literally trying to defund the organization that is tasked with keeping our streets safe, our borders secure, keeping Americans — allowing Americans to go home to their families at night,” Britt said. “It’s just totally, his priorities are completely and totally off.”

While Schumer is trying to extend the protected status of Haitian migrants, DHS is still shut down over disagreements on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) funding.

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The legislation made it through the House last week after 10 Republicans bucked President Donald Trump and joined Democrats to shield more than 350,000 Haitian nationals from deportation.

The TPS program allows foreign nationals whose home countries face humanitarian crises or dangerous conditions to temporarily live and work in the United States without fear of deportation, but it does not provide a pathway to citizenship.

Schumer noted on the Senate floor earlier this week that Haitian migrants became a political flash point during Trump’s campaign, in which he claimed that a community of Haitians in Ohio were eating pets. 

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“Despite ongoing violence, gang violence, civil instability, terrible medical infrastructure, and poor food access in Haiti,” Schumer said, “Trump directed Kristi Noem to strip Haitian immigrants of their TPS, their Temporary Protected Status, disregarding the process Congress set into law.”

Trump tried to revoke the program for Haiti and argued that because conditions have improved in the country, granting Haitians legal protections runs counter to American interests. But his administration’s effort is currently snarled in the courts. 

And if it were to make it to a vote, Republicans plan to swiftly kill it.

When asked whether the bill stood a chance in the upper chamber, Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, flashed a zero sign by connecting his index finger and thumb. 

“Zero point zero,” Moreno told Fox News Digital.  “Schumer is all illegals first, it’s crazy.”