Mass. Dems seek Haiti immigration status

WASHINGTON, May 13 (UPI) -- Massachusetts Democrats Sen. Edward Kennedy and Rep. Barney Frank say Haitians fleeing natural disasters should be allowed to stay in the United States.

The pair, along with U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., are urging the Department of Homeland Security to grant such Haitians temporary protected status, which allow both legal and illegal immigrants permission to live and work in the United States for a set amount of time, The Boston Globe reported Wednesday.

Frank said the U.S. government now extends such temporary protections to refugees from El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Somalia and Sudan, but has never offered it to Haiti.

"I think it's outrageous that they don't have it," he said last week.

The Globe said Lynch has co-sponsored a bill that would force Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano to issue the status to Haiti if she doesn't do so on her own. So far she has not, with deportations reportedly resuming recently after they were halted last year when a series of hurricanes devastated the impoverished Caribbean nation.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform, however, opposes the move, contending Haiti's temporary protection would likely become permanent, the Globe said.