City of Philadelphia - File #: 170890

• File #: 170890
• Version: 0
• Type: Resolution
• Status: ADOPTED
• File created: 10/12/2017
• In control: CITY COUNCIL
• Final action: 10/19/2017
• Title: Urging President Donald Trump and Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke to protect thousands of Haitians living in Philadelphia and nationwide through the extension of Haiti's Temporary Protected Status designation beyond January 22, 2018.
• Sponsors: Councilmember Gym, Councilmember Parker, Councilmember Green, Councilmember Blackwell, Councilmember Domb, Councilmember Jones, Councilmember Johnson, Councilmember Henon, Councilmember Greenlee, Councilmember Reynolds Brown

Date	Ver.	Action By	Action	Result	Tally
10/19/2017	0	CITY COUNCIL	ADOPTED
10/12/2017	0	CITY COUNCIL	Introduced and Ordered Placed On Next Week's Final Passage Calendar	Pass

Title
Urging President Donald Trump and Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke to protect thousands of Haitians living in Philadelphia and nationwide through the extension of Haiti's Temporary Protected Status designation beyond January 22, 2018.

Body
WHEREAS, The 2010 Haiti earthquake, reaching 7.0 magnitude, shook the country to its core, leading to a death toll of between 220,000 and 316,000. Over 1.5 million people were initially and internally displaced; and

WHEREAS, As a response to the earthquake's devastation, President Obama and the Department of Homeland Security granted 58,000 Haitian nationals who were in the United States as of January 12, 2010 Temporary Protected Status (TPS), granting them temporary residence and refuge in the United States. This temporary status was extended to over 2,900 Haitians living in the City of Philadelphia; and

WHEREAS, Currently nearly 240,000 Haitian earthquake victims remain displaced in camps and settlements. The cholera epidemic, spread by UN peacekeepers that responded to the earthquake, has since killed at least 10,000 and infected over 800,000 Haitians. Even more, October 2016's Hurricane Matthew took the lives of over 1,000 people, left hundreds of thousands without safe water or food, and further crippled the nation's infrastructure and agriculture; and

WHEREAS, Haiti's TPS has been continually renewed since its advent in 2010. Most recently, on May 22, 2017, the Department of Homeland Security extended Haiti's TPS designation for only six months, warning recipients to be prepared to return to Haiti. The status is thus scheduled to terminate on January 22, 2018; and

WHEREAS, When meeting with Haitian-American leaders at the Little Haiti Cultural Center in Miami in September 2016, President Trump remarked, "The Haitian people deserve better, so ... I will give them better. Today we begin a new chapter, together we will build a relationship based on mutual respect and friendship and ...