Donalds says he’s ‘working’ with Haitian leaders to stabilize government after end of TPS

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), the GOP nominee for Florida governor, said Sunday he is “working” with leaders in Haiti to stabilize the country after the temporary protected status (TPS) of more than 300,000 Haitians migrants in the U.S. expired.

“I’ve actually had meetings with the transitional government and the ambassador for the transitional government,” Donalds told host Margaret Brennan on CBS News’s “ Face the Nation .”

“They’re working on security forces right now as we speak to begin to stabilize Haiti, they’ve gotten about a quarter to half of the country under control from the gangs that basically took over Haiti,” added the Florida congressman, who won the Republican gubernatorial primary on Tuesday.

The Supreme Court earlier this summer allowed the Trump administration to revoke the TPS designation for Haitian migrants .

The high court ruled in a 6-3 decision, along ideological lines, that federal judges had no authority to weigh in on a challenge to the administration’s action brought by the migrants — reversing the February decision by U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes to pause the revocation .

Roughly 158,000 Haitian TPS holders lived in Florida as of January, according to a report from the immigration advocacy group Fwd.us .

Haitian TPS holders contribute $2.6 billion annually to the Sunshine State’s economy, with 93,000 Haitians in Florida working in industries such as agriculture, security and nursing, the report noted.

The Obama administration initially granted Haitians TPS in 2010 after an earthquake struck the Caribbean island. The State Department still warns Americans against traveling to Haiti over risks associated with crime, kidnapping, terrorism, unrest and limited healthcare.

But Donalds argued Sunday the TPS designation was not intended to last “into perpetuity with no end,” adding that creates the “wrong incentives to make sure that people can return to their home country, stabilize that country, and make sure that it returns to normalcy.”