Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced on Friday, as expected, that she is ending Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, for hundreds of thousands of Haitian immigrants, effective Sept. 3.
“This decision restores integrity in our immigration system and ensures that Temporary Protective Status is actually temporary,” said a DHS spokesperson in a statement.
"The environmental situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home," said the spokesperson in explaining the reason for terminating TPS.
TPS allows people already in the United States to live and work legally because their native countries are deemed unsafe for return due to natural disaster or civil strife.
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DHS grants TPS in 18-month increments after reviewing country conditions in consultation with State Department officials.
In the DHS statement, the spokesperson said "overall, country conditions have improved to the point where Haitians can return home in safety" and that "permitting Haitian nationals to remain temporarily ... is contrary to the national interest of the United States."
U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami Gardens, scolded DHS for ending TPS, arguing that Haiti remains a dangerous country.
"Deporting Haitians back to Haiti is a kiss of death," the Democratic lawmaker said in a statement on Friday. "How can the Department of Homeland Security say it’s safe to return to Haiti, while the State Department is still warning Americans not to travel there?"
“Haiti is not safe! It’s riddled with gang violence and political turmoil," she said. "The poorest country in the Western hemisphere cannot absorb deportees.
Gang violence has displaced a record 1.3 million people across Haiti as the local government and international community struggle to contain the spiraling crisis, according to a new U.N. report released this month. The U.N.’s International Organization for Migration warned of a 24% increase in displaced people since December, with gunmen now having chased 11% of Haiti’s nearly 12 million inhabitants from their home.
Friday's DHS announcement is part of a sweeping effort by the Trump administration to make good on campaign promises to carry out mass deportations and specifically to scale back the use of TPS, which was widely expanded under the Biden administration to cover about 1 million immigrants.
The administration had signaled earlier this year they planned to end TPS for Haitians and other immigrant groups.
An estimated 500,000 Haitians have TPS, including tens of thousands in South Florida, home to the largest concentration of Haitian immigrants in the country.
United We Dream, a national immigrant advocacy group, said ending TPS for Haitians is part of the Trump administration’s “growing strategy to delegalize” immigrants.
“This decision will deliberately put individuals and families in harm's way, sending them to face dire conditions including homelessness and starvation,” said the group in a statement. “Like all immigrants, Haitians power our communities in big and small ways, working across industries to help strengthen our neighborhoods and cities.”
“This growing strategy to delegalize millions in order to fulfill the administration’s mass abduction demands undoubtedly throws the future of other temporary programs into peril,” United We Dream said.
Several South Florida lawmakers in Congress have tried to persuade the Trump administration to renew TPS.
“Across the country, [Haitians with TPS] have strengthened our workforce, supporting our airports, hospitals, small businesses and schools,” U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Miramar, wrote in a letter signed in March by nearly three dozen Democratic colleagues, including Wilson and U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, D-Weston. Cherfilus-McCormick is the only Haitian-American in Congress.
In the March 6 letter, the lawmakers warned that the “abrupt removal of over 500,000 workers will have an immense and irreparable impact on businesses across the country and the economy at large,” noting that Haitian TPS holders collectively contribute annually $2.3 billion in federal taxes and $1.3 billion in state and local taxes.
Even before Friday's announcement, several immigrant advocates organizations have been waging a fight in federal courts in Massachusetts, northern California and Maryland to block the end of TPS.
