http://www.miamiherald.com/news/southfl ... _Container

BY TRENTON DANIEL
tdaniel@MiamiHerald.com
A diverse group of local leaders and their allies is stepping up efforts to secure temporary protect status, or TPS, for Haitians.

On Monday, the group -- which includes everybody from church leaders to hip hop artists -- will gather at a Little Haiti center to call on the Obama administration to grant TPS to Haitians in the United States, a designation that would allow some 30,000 undocumented Haitians to remain in the country temporarily with a work permit.

The administration is reviewing the possibility of issuing TPS to Haitians, though President Barack Obama said this summer that an immigration overhaul would have to wait until next year.

Haiti advocates argue that Haitians in the United States deserve TPS after a series of deadly storms battered the Caribbean country last year. Congress approved the designation in 1990 for foreign nationals fleeing civil war and natural disasters.

The Monday news conference at the Jean Jacques Dessalines Center is one of several events this week that seek to highlight the contributions of Haitians. Local activists plan to rally in front of the White House on Wednesday.

Former President Bill Clinton, the United Nations' special envoy to Haiti, publicly brought up the TPS issue in August. He urged Haiti advocates to keep the pressure on but to do so respectfully.