Rare defiance of Trump in the US Congress. How the vote was forced in favor of people accused of eating 'cats and dogs'
The US House of Representatives on Thursday offered a rare defiance of President Donald Trump's immigration agenda, after several Republicans joined Democrats in voting to extend temporary protections for the 350,000 Haitians living in the United States.
The House voted 224 to 204 in favor of a law allowing Haitians to remain eligible for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for three years after the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ended their humanitarian rights.
The legislation now heads to the Republican-dominated US Senate, where the bill's fate is uncertain.
But Thursday's vote made clear that some Republicans are ready to distance themselves from the White House on the issue as the US Supreme Court prepares this month to decide whether to allow the Trump administration to revoke deportation protections for Haitians.
Ten Republicans and one independent lawmaker joined Democrats in voting for the measure.
Among other accusations against immigrants, President Donald Trump has openly stated that Haitians “eat cats and dogs.”
TPS is available to people whose home country has experienced a natural disaster, armed conflict, or other extraordinary event. The tool provides eligible migrants with work authorization and temporary protection from deportation.
Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts initiated a procedural maneuver back in December to rush a House vote on the bill after Kristi Noem, then the head of the Department of Homeland Security, moved to revoke the TPS status granted to the gang-ridden country of Haiti.
DHS moved to end the status for 13 countries as part of Trump's crackdown on immigration, saying TPS was always intended as a temporary program and not a “de facto amnesty program.”
The bill reached the full House of Representatives, led by Republicans, through a special procedure – a so-called “exemption petition” – that allows 218 or more lawmakers to force a vote in the House, even if the legislation is contested by House Speaker Mike Johnson, who sets the agenda in the plenary.
With a tight 218-213 Republican majority in the House, Democrats used this tool to score some rare victories for the minority party.
The Obama administration granted Haitians TPS in 2010 after a devastating 7.0 earthquake struck their country. The United States has repeatedly extended this status, most recently under the Biden administration in July 2024.
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), more than 1.4 million Haitians have been displaced by violence and instability.
A day before protections under the Trump administration were to expire, a federal judge blocked the administration's initiative. The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on April 29 on whether the administration should end TPS status for Haitians, as well as about 6,100 Syrians.
