The editorial boards of the Miami Herald and the Orlando Sentinel warned about the economic consequences of Trump’s plan to deport immigrants with Temporary Protected Status. They are “our neighbors, our friends, and our relatives.” Why didn’t Floridians think of that before they voted?
The editorial says:
It’s like 2017 all over again when it comes to Donald Trump and his threats about ending Temporary Protected Status.
TPS, a federal program familiar to Floridians, protects some immigrants from deportation for a limited time because of emergency conditions in their home countries, such as Venezuela and Haiti. To qualify, they must be living in the U.S. when their country is designated for TPS and must meet a certain cutoff date. It allows them to live and work legally in the U.S. but does not offer a pathway to permanent legalization.
In his previous term, Trump tried and failed to end TPS for immigrants from Haiti and Nicaragua. This time, the president-elect should think twice. His home state of Florida would be affected more than any other. Almost a third of about 863,880 TPS recipients now live in this state, many from Venezuela and Haiti, places with well-documented turmoil and failures.
TPS recipients have legal status in the country, even if they initially came without documents. And TPS recipients pay into the system, through taxes. An estimate from 2019 put the number at $4.6 billion in federal, state and local taxes each year.
Their ranks are growing
As the Miami Herald has reported, the number of TPS recipients in Florida has more than quadrupled in the past three years, up from about 65,000 in April 2021 to about 295,720 now.
The Biden administration expanded TPS, including for about 472,000 Venezuelans, a move that translates into many more who could potentially be affected if Trump targets TPS — a program created in 1990 under President George H. W. Bush.
TPS emerged as an issue in the 2024 Trump campaign during that shameful episode in September, when Trump’s running mate, Vice President-elect JD Vance, spread debunked conspiracy theories about Haitians eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, and Trump continued to spread that misinformation at a presidential debate.
“They are eating the dogs … they are eating the cats,” Trump said repeatedly.
Ominous threats in Ohio
In early October, when Trump was asked whether, if reelected, he would revoke TPS for Haitians — at least those in Springfield — and deport them, he responded: “Absolutely. I’d revoke it, and I’d bring them back to their country.”
Vance also mentioned TPS at an Arizona campaign event in October: “What Donald Trump has proposed doing is we’re going to stop doing mass parole. We’re going to stop doing mass grants of Temporary Protected Status.”
All of that was well before the election.
Now, with a second Trump administration in the offing, theory could become reality. Look at his appointments: immigration hardliner Stephen Miller as deputy chief of staff for policy — he has criticized the Biden administration’s humanitarian parole program aimed at slowing the number of migrants at the southern border — and Tom Homan as the “border czar.” Homan led Immigration and Customs Enforcement when families were separated during Trump’s first term.
Immigration was one of the main drivers of Trump’s 2024 campaign. Much attention was focused on his vows to conduct mass deportations, especially of undocumented people. About 11 million immigrants without legal status were in the U.S. in 2022, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Trump has also talked about a host of other immigration actions, including ending birthright citizenship and restarting construction of the border wall. After the fearmongering in Ohio, TPS is on the table, too. Lawsuits derailed Trump’s efforts the last time. Will it happen again?
We understand that TPS is, by definition, supposed to be temporary. That’s fair. But in many of these countries — Haiti, certainly, and Venezuela — conditions are just as bad as they were or worse. Returning TPS recipients to their countries could put them in danger. In Florida, where TPS recipients are our neighbors and friends and relatives, we should already know that.
This editorial was originally published in the Miami Herald. The Sentinel sometimes republishes editorials that reflect our point of view. Send letters to insight@orlandosentinel.com.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Think twice”?? Trump doesn’t have the brain capacity to even think once.
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Law abiding TPS migrants. unfortunately, are included in the anti-immigrant sentiment among many in Florida and elsewhere. Included in the TPS population are a number of Venezuelans that entered the US there were many members of a dangerous gang called Tren de Aragua, which has been on a crime spree in lots of American cities. The Biden administration has been aggressively pursuing a deporting these gang members, but their lawlessness has caused a backlash against law abiding immigrants as well. Although it is rarely mentioned in the media, Biden has aggressively pursued and deported unregistered immigrants that break the law. It is unfortunate that hard working people fleeing violence will be targeted under Trump.https://www.nbcnews.com/news/dhs-identified-600-migrants-possible-ties-venezuelan-gang-rcna176020
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Trump, Vance, and possibly the majority of the GOP do not give a damn about the conditions in other countries the TPSs will face. They do not care if many of these immigrants are to be going back to death through violence and poverty. They are only interested in fulfilling campaign promises to the haves and uneducated have-nots.
What I do not understand and never will is how Trump and his minions who claimed to be faithful Christians can do what they are planning to do. I cannot understand why all the Christian leadership whether they are Protestant or Catholic are not standing up and raising holy hell over what Trump and all his low grade minions are planning to do. The Christian leaders and their flocks of this country talk a good talk but they do not walk the Good Christian walk.
Trump is a black hearted very evil person.
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Agreed! No Christian would tolerate this evil.
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I’ve been posting this on Fox News and Newsmax sites just to let the MAGA Minions know:
$86,000,000,000!!!
Tom Homan, Donald Trump’s pick to oversee what he has promised to be the country’s largest ever deportation effort, says that the deportation program will cost U.S. taxpayers $86 billion (which is 86,000 millions of dollars). And that doesn’t include the huge cost to the economy because of the disruption of many areas, such as the farming and food-processing industry which will drive up the cost of food.
Like the border wall, no one but U.S. taxpayers will pay for it all.
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Trump and his anti-immigrant zealots will find out the hard way that actions have consequences, and the people will be left to shoulder the expense of both the deportations and the damage to the economy.
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