[1]WASHINGTON (BP) — A month before the U.S. Supreme Court considers temporary protected status (TPS) for Haitian refugees, Southern Baptist pastors and other leaders advocated in congressional offices on behalf of those facing deportation to their dangerous homeland.
Pastors and leaders sought to protect “vulnerable individuals and families who have been an integral part of our community,” and to protect the U.S. economy, said Keny Felix, president of the Southern Baptist Convention National Haitian Fellowship and senior pastor of Bethel Evangelical Baptist Church in Miami.
“Our neighbors and church members are in danger of being returned to the very country they fled to escape unrestrained violence by gangs — the sexual exploitation of children, kidnappings, and murder,” Felix told Baptist Press, “in addition to severe food insecurity and the collapse of essential public institutions.”
David Eugene, pastor of Haitian Evangelical Baptist Church in Miami and president of the Haitian Christian Leaders Coalition; Patrick Jules, pastor of Bethel Evangelical Baptist Church in Fort Lauderdale, and Paul Christian Namphy, lead organizer for the Family Action Network Movement, joined Felix, collaborating with non-SBC Haitian pastors from Indianapolis, Boston and New York, and others in the outreach to bipartisan representatives.
“I believe faith leaders of our denomination need to join with local churches’ pastors to exert maximum pressure on elected officials that we voted into office to enact legislation that would put an end to this crisis,” Eugene told Baptist Press.
A key goal was encouraging congressional members to sign a discharge petition by U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MD), to compel the House to vote on a bill requiring a three-year extension of TPS for Haitian refugees. Pressley, who co-chairs the House Haiti Caucus and represents one of the largest Haitian diaspora communities in the U.S., introduced in February the discharge petition that must draw 218 signatures to move forward.
The global faith-based advocacy network Faith in Action organized the outreach, Felix said, that occurred a week after SCOTUS signaled [2] it would hear in late April an appeal from the Trump administration seeking to remove TPS for Haitian and Syrian nationals.
“We’re grateful to Faith in Action for coming along side pastors and faith leaders during this most critical time as we work to bring attention to this crisis,” Felix said. “We must not only pray for the vulnerable but advocate and stand with them. It’s the right thing to do when your neighbor is hurting.”
[3]Haiti had been under a “Level 4: Do Not Travel” advisory, and while it has not been removed from the governmental website, the U.S. State Department issued in November 2025 a statement from the Department of Homeland Security that, “Based on the Department’s review, the Secretary has determined that there are no extraordinary and temporary conditions in Haiti that prevent Haitian nationals (or aliens having no nationality who last habitually resided in Haiti) from returning in safety.”
It goes on to say, “Based on the Department’s review, the Secretary has determined that while the current situation in Haiti is concerning, the United States must prioritize its national interests and permitting Haitian nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is contrary to the U.S. national interest.”
As recently as a year ago, 330,735 Haitian nationals were among 1.3 million people holding TPS here from 17 countries, Congress said in March 2025.
Haitian nationals contribute $5.9 billion annually to the U.S. economy, advocates said, and annually pay $805 million in federal and payroll taxes, and $755 million in state local taxes, according to numbers shared [4] by Faith in Action and distributed among congressional members.
Church attendance among Haitian nationals has plummeted in the past year, as the Trump administration has sought to end TPS, and others are reticent to even attend online, pastors said, for fear of being tracked and monitored.
“Many members are experiencing severe anxiety. Many of them have begun to report incidences of suicidal ideation among their teenage population,” Eugene said, “and the uncertainty created by the negative news emanating from the White House continues to exacerbate their griefs and hopelessness.”
Pastors and other advocates sought to present a clear understanding of why TPS for Haitians must be extended, highlight how ending TPS for Haitians would impact various U.S. communities, and discuss “the moral duty to protect the vulnerable, including those fleeing violence, persecution, and a humanitarian crisis,” Felix said.
Representatives of the TPS Alliance and labor organizations the like the American Business Immigration Coalition, joined pastors and other advocates in the outreach.
Under TPS, established in 1990 through Title III of the Immigration Act, people in the U.S. from countries deemed as unsafe to return to can apply for protected status lasting six, 12 or 18 months; and if their country of origin remains unsafe, they may apply for indefinite TPS, according to a SCOTUS blog post explainer [2].
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