Senate Democrats tried to push through sweeping legislation Wednesday that would have granted green cards to migrants in the United States under Temporary Protected Status, including people who had already been deported. Republicans blocked it in minutes.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, attempted to fast-track the bill through the chamber without a full debate. Sen. Eric Schmitt, a Missouri Republican, objected immediately.
“That’s how Democrats do mass amnesty,” Schmitt said.
The bill would have granted permanent legal residency to current and former TPS holders, a status program that pauses deportation for migrants from countries the government designates as too dangerous or unstable for return. Under Democrats’ version, eligibility extended to migrants who never applied for TPS in the first place and to people who were already deported.
“This bill does not merely reward those who broke our laws and remain in our country; it reaches around the globe to reverse deportations and to restart mass migration,” Schmitt said.
It’s the second consecutive week Senate Democrats have tried this. Last week, Van Hollen pushed a narrower measure covering Haitians only. Schmitt blocked that one too.
The push comes days after the Supreme Court handed the Trump administration a decisive victory on TPS. The high court ruled last month that judges lack the authority to second-guess an administration’s decisions on granting or revoking the status, and specifically rejected claims that the Trump administration was discriminating against Haiti and Syria. Homeland Security moved this week to declare Syrian and Haitian TPS protection finished as of Monday.
With protections lapsed, roughly 350,000 Haitians who held TPS are no longer authorized to work in the United States. Those without other legal standing are now subject to deportation.
Van Hollen argued lawmakers had a responsibility to act. “We should not be forcing these individuals back to countries where our own State Department has determined it would be dangerous,” he said. “The Supreme Court decision does not have to be the end of the story. We can write the end of that story.”
Haiti was first granted TPS after a catastrophic earthquake in 2010. Biden later expanded the designation citing political violence and instability, adding an estimated 300,000 new beneficiaries, most of whom crossed during the Biden-era border surge.
