I’m a Haitian TPS holder. 350,000 of us hold our breath as Congress decides our future | Josianne Valsaint

Right now, across the country, there are more than 330,000 Haitians collectively holding their breath over the future of lifesaving immigration protections provided through Temporary Protected Status (TPS). Three hundred and fifty thousand is a big, meaningful number – but for many, it’s still just a number.

In the case of Donald Trump and his supporters in Congress, the number of lives at stake has mattered little. Trump has been incessant in his efforts to eliminate TPS for Haitians. In doing so, he’s broken with a bipartisan tradition dating back to 1990 of prioritizing the safety of people from other countries who cannot return home because of dangerous conditions. And it’s how he’s done it, too: without consideration for the ongoing violence, civil unrest, lack of infrastructure, and political instability in Haiti. But what Trump has also failed to acknowledge are the lives built here by that same huge number of people.