During an interview with ABC News on Monday, Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) said, “we’ve got a lot of wonderful Haitians in my state. I’ve always supported…their opportunity to be here. You can’t do it under TPS, because under TPS, it’s a temporary program. So, we’ve got to fix the whole system of immigration to help them.” And the system has to be fixed so “we can vet people, and then have a system where the people who want to live our dreams can stay here.”
Host Linsey Davis asked, “As you know, Florida is home to the largest number of Haitians in the U.S. under TPS, more than 100,000, making them eligible for deportation. Do you think that these refugees should be sent back home to Haiti, at this particular time?”
Scott answered, “Well, first off, unfortunately, Biden abused the whole TPS and parole system. And so, what Trump’s doing is he’s enforcing the law. What we want — it was always a temporary program. So, we’ve got to come up with how do we fix the immigration system so people that we know are vetted, that want to come to live our way of life, under a capitalistic system, can come here. So, we’ve got a lot of wonderful Haitians in my state. I’ve always supported them — their opportunity to be here. You can’t do it under TPS, because under TPS, it’s a temporary program. So, we’ve got to fix the whole system of immigration to help them. We’ve got a lot of people in my state from different parts of Latin America that, they’re a big part of our state, and so we’ve got to come up with a way that they can continue to thrive here.”
Davis then asked, “But, certainly, many are aware that Haiti is very dangerous right now, a volatile situation. So, to the people who are in Florida right now who are being forced to return to Haiti, are you concerned about their safety?”
Scott answered, “Oh, absolutely. That’s why I — when I first got up here, I went and got all the Republicans on board on a bill to fix the TPS system where, once the temporary status was over, the Congress would be able to make a decision so they could stay. Unfortunately, the Democrats blocked that the two times I did it. I’ve been fighting for Haitians and Venezuelans and people that can’t go back and live in their countries for a variety of reasons. But, ultimately, what we have to do is we have to fix our whole immigration system so we can vet people — we don’t want criminals coming here — but we can vet people, and then have a system where the people who want to live our dreams can stay here.”
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