The Trump administration has once again moved to halt humanitarian protections for Haitians living in the US, this time announcing that their temporary protected status (TPS) will expire on 3 February.
According to a new Department of Homeland Security notice issued on Wednesday, TPS for approximately 340,000 Haitian migrants will be terminated next year.
In the notice, the DHS secretary, Kristi Noem, said that Haiti no longer faces “extraordinary and temporary conditions” that would prevent nationals from returning. That statement comes despite worsening instability from gang violence in Haiti and political turmoil that has forced more than a record 1.4 million people from their homes this year.
Despite acknowledging that “certain conditions in Haiti remain concerning”, including mass displacement and gang violence, and that the country’s turmoil has “spillover effects … [that] threaten not only Haiti but the stability of the wider Caribbean and the western hemisphere”. The notice nonetheless argues that allowing Haitians to remain in the United States is “contrary to the US national interest”.
The notice continued: “As is widely known, Haiti lacks a central authority with sufficient availability and dissemination of law enforcement information necessary to ensure its nationals do not undermine the national security of the United States.”
It added: “Our immigration policy must align with our foreign policy vision of a secure, sovereign, and self-reliant Haiti and not a country that Haitian citizens continue to leave in large numbers to seek opportunities in the United States.”
The latest move from the DHS, which follows Unicef estimates in October that more than 6 million Haitians, including 3.3 million children, require urgent humanitarian assistance, comes as Trump continues his widespread crackdown on immigration including temporary protections for nationals of certain countries.
In July, a federal judge halted the Trump administration’s effort to end TPS and work permits for about 521,000 Haitian migrants ahead of schedule. Earlier this year, the DHS had reversed Joe Biden’s 2024 extension of TPS for Haitians – shortening their status to end on 2 September instead of 3 February of next year.
However, US district judge Brian Cogan ruled that Noem had failed to follow the congressionally mandated process for reviewing Haiti’s TPS designation.
Throughout his presidential campaign, Trump claimed baselessly that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio were eating cats and dogs – misinformation that was quickly picked up and spread by other prominent Republicans including JD Vance and Ted Cruz, resulting in multiple bomb threats across the city last year.
