The Florida senator said Temporary Protected Status cannot provide permanent residency but urged Congress to create a lawful process allowing vetted Haitians and other immigrants who cannot safely return home to remain in the United States.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said Monday that Haitians living in the United States under Temporary Protected Status should not be granted permanent residency through a program designed to be temporary, but he called for broader immigration reforms that would allow vetted individuals to remain legally.
Scott, whose state is home to more than 100,000 Haitians covered by TPS, acknowledged the severe danger many would face if returned to Haiti and said Congress should establish a process for determining who may stay after temporary protections expire.
“We’ve got a lot of wonderful Haitians in my state,” Scott said during an interview with ABC News. “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.”
Scott said the replacement system should allow federal authorities to screen applicants carefully, exclude criminals and provide legal status to people who want to build their lives in the United States.
“We can vet people, and then have a system where the people who want to live our dreams can stay here,” he said.
ABC News host Linsey Davis asked Scott whether Haitian nationals covered by TPS should be deported at a time when conditions in their home country remain unstable and dangerous.
“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,” Davis said. “Do you think that these refugees should be sent back home to Haiti, at this particular time?”
Scott responded by accusing former President Joe Biden of misusing temporary immigration programs and said President Donald Trump is now enforcing existing law.
“Well, first off, unfortunately, Biden abused the whole TPS and parole system,” Scott said. “And so, what Trump’s doing is he’s enforcing the law.”
Scott emphasized that TPS was never intended to provide an indefinite or automatic path to permanent legal status.
“What we want — it was always a temporary program,” he said. “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.”
Temporary Protected Status allows eligible foreign nationals already in the United States to remain and obtain work authorization when conditions in their home countries make safe return temporarily impossible. The designation does not itself provide permanent residency or citizenship.
Scott said Haitians and immigrants from other parts of Latin America have become an important part of Florida and should have access to a lawful process that recognizes their contributions while preserving immigration enforcement.
“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,” he said.
Davis pressed Scott on whether he was concerned about the safety of Haitians who could be required to return to a country struggling with violence and instability.
“But, certainly, many are aware that Haiti is very dangerous right now, a volatile situation,” Davis said. “So, to the people who are in Florida right now who are being forced to return to Haiti, are you concerned about their safety?”
“Oh, absolutely,” Scott replied.
The senator said he previously sought Republican support for legislation that would allow Congress to decide whether certain TPS recipients should remain after the temporary designation ended.
“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,” Scott said.
He blamed Democrats for blocking the proposal on two occasions.
“Unfortunately, the Democrats blocked that the two times I did it,” Scott said.
The Florida Republican said his efforts have extended beyond Haitian nationals to Venezuelans and others who may be unable to return safely to their countries.
“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,” he said.
Scott framed the issue as part of a larger failure in federal immigration policy. He argued that the United States needs a system capable of distinguishing between dangerous individuals and immigrants seeking to live peacefully and contribute to the country.
“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,” Scott said.
His comments place him between two competing positions in the immigration debate. He supports ending reliance on TPS as a long-term status while opposing the automatic removal of people who may face serious danger and who have established lives in the United States.
Scott did not outline a complete legislative proposal during the interview, but his remarks suggested that Congress should create an individualized screening process after temporary protections expire.
Such a system, as he described it, would preserve the temporary nature of TPS while allowing lawmakers or immigration authorities to grant continued legal status to qualified applicants.
The senator’s position reflects the political significance of the issue in Florida, where Haitian and Latin American communities represent a substantial part of the state’s population, workforce and civic life.
Scott said the answer is neither indefinite renewal of temporary programs nor indiscriminate deportation. Instead, he called for a permanent statutory framework that combines security screening, enforcement and a legal opportunity for eligible immigrants to remain.
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