Eric Schmitt Objected to a Democrat TPS Bill and Called It Their Final Scam

The Supreme Court cleared the way to deport Haitians and Syrians last June.

Senate Democrats quietly tried to give those same migrants permanent green cards instead.

One Missouri senator stood up and called their plan by its real name.

Van Hollen's SECURE Act Would Convert Temporary Status Into Permanent Green Cards

Senator Chris Van Hollen walked onto the Senate floor on July 29 and asked for unanimous consent to pass his SECURE Act.

Eric Schmitt said one word.

Objection.

That single word killed a bill that would have handed lawful permanent residency – green cards – to every Temporary Protected Status holder in the country.

Current TPS holders qualify.

Former TPS holders qualify.

Anyone who simply lived here three straight years qualifies.

Schmitt didn't mince words describing what he'd just stopped.

"Temporary was always meant to become permanent," he said. "It is the final stage of their scam."

Van Hollen brought 30 fellow Democratic senators onto the bill, including Bernie Sanders, Tim Kaine, Alex Padilla, Dick Durbin and Patty Murray.

Thirty senators signed onto a plan to permanently settle a population Congress never intended to stay past a natural disaster or a civil war.

The Provision That Blocks ICE From Touching Applicant Data

Here's the part Van Hollen didn't put in his press release headline.

The bill lets people who were already deported apply for a green card from overseas.

Schmitt read that provision out loud on the floor.

"This bill reaches beyond our borders and allows people who were already removed to apply for permanent residency from abroad," he said.

Someone ICE already put on a plane could file paperwork from Port au Prince and land back on a path to citizenship.

Schmitt called the enforcement provision an ICE blackout in his own words on the floor.

"The bill also creates an ICE blackout," he said. "Information provided in these applications can't be used for immigration enforcement."

Fraud investigators get a narrow carve out.

Everyone else at DHS gets nothing.

This is the second time in a week Schmitt has stopped this exact playbook.

On July 23, he blocked a separate push tied to Ed Markey and Lisa Blunt Rochester to extend TPS for 350,000 Haitians rather than let the designation expire on schedule.

"Temporary must mean temporary," Schmitt said that day. "And elections must have consequences."

Markey called TPS "America's longstanding commitment to serve as a beacon of hope and refuge for the vulnerable."

Voters put Trump back in office to end that kind of talk, not restate it with better branding.

Why Democrats Kept Pushing After Losing at the Supreme Court

Democrats are running this play because the Supreme Court just took their other options away.

On June 25, the justices ruled 6-3 that Trump can end TPS designations and courts have no business second guessing it.

That ruling should have ended the fight over roughly a million people who came in under a program built for earthquakes and hurricanes, not permanent immigration.

Instead Van Hollen tried to do through unanimous consent what he can't do through the courts anymore.

TPS became law in 1990 as a stopgap, and Haiti's designation alone has been renewed nine times over sixteen years since 2010.

That's not temporary relief.

That's a backdoor amnesty program running on autopilot, and Schmitt just cut the power.

"There is nothing compassionate about betraying your own citizens," Schmitt said.

"There is nothing compassionate about flooding the labor market with more foreign workers while Americans struggle for a decent wage."

Sources:

• Sen. Eric Schmitt, "Senator Schmitt Blocks Democrats' Mass Amnesty Bill," Schmitt.Senate.gov, July 29, 2026.
• Sen. Eric Schmitt, "Senator Schmitt Blocks Democrats' Attempt to Continue Mass Migration Scheme," Schmitt.Senate.gov, July 23, 2026.
• Sen. Chris Van Hollen, "Following Trump Attacks on TPS, Van Hollen, 30 Senators Put Forward Bill to Protect TPS and DED Recipients," VanHollen.Senate.gov, 2026.
• Staff Report, "GOP Blocks Democrats' Bid to Grant Path to Citizenship to Migrants on TPS," The Washington Times, July 29, 2026.
• Staff Report, "Markey's Bill to Extend Temporary Protected Status for Haitians Blocked by Schmitt," Daily Hampshire Gazette, July 23, 2026.