WASHINGTON, DC - Fresh off a monumental Supreme Court decision, the Department of Homeland Security announced on Friday that temporary legal protection for Haitian immigrants was being terminated, The Daily Mail reports.
In announcing the decision, the DHS stated that conditions in Haiti have improved to the point where Haitians no longer meet the criteria for temporary legal protection.
“This decision restores integrity in our immigration system and ensures that Temporary Protective Status is actually temporary,” a DHS spokesperson said.
“The environmental situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home.”
Despite the change in TPS status, the State Department still has a travel advisory in place for Americans, recommending they “do not travel to Haiti due to kidnapping, crime, civil unrest, and limited health care.”
As expected, some have criticized the decision.
“The decision today will leave returning Haitian citizens at very high risk of persecution, danger, [and] homelessness. People have nowhere to go,” Pastor Dieufort Fleurissant told The Boston Globe.
“You have a humanitarian collapse. The only hope we have is God. God and to call upon our friends and allies, elected officials, to advocate on our behalf, so these families can be protected and find a way to enact permanent solutions.”
He told The Globe that Haitian migrants have been calling him since the news broke and said they are now unsure what the future holds for them and their children.
The DHS said that Haitian citizens were encouraged to apply for lawful status.
“We encourage these individuals to take advantage of the Department’s resources in returning to Haiti, which can be arranged through the CBP Home app. Haitian nationals may pursue lawful status through other immigration benefit requests, if eligible.”
Far-left progressive Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) took to liberal social media site Bluesky to slam the decision, writing, “We should NOT be deporting anyone to a nation still dealing with a grave humanitarian crisis like Haiti.”
A staff attorney for the far-left Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, Heather Yountz, said DHS was revoking TPS from Haitians “simply to fulfill the harmful mass deportation he [Trump] promised,” in a statement to The Globe.
Under the new directive, Haitians inside the US under temporary protected status have until September 2 to leave the country. Although the program ends on August 3, it doesn't take effect for a month.
According to The Daily Mail, a majority of Haitian migrants live in Massachusetts and Florida.
According to the International Organization for Migration, which operates under the United Nations, gang violence has forced 1.3 million people to flee as the local government and international interests try to contain the crisis in the country. The report said that there was a 24 percent increase in displaced individuals since December, with gunmen chasing some 11 percent of Haiti’s 12 million inhabitants from their homes.
Congress created Temporary Protected Status in the Immigration Act of 1990, which allows residents of countries that faced natural disasters, war, or other extraordinary and unsafe conditions to designate refuge in the U.S. The program can be extended in increments of 18 months.
US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) spokesman Matthew Tragesser told Fox News Digital that removing TPS status for Haitians would impact approximately 520,000 immigrants in the U.S.
Comments
2025-07-03T10:08-0400 | Comment by: Laurence
Let the Leftists rage. Those Haitians should never have been allowed into our country in the first place. This is yet another example of why the USA must reduce immigration to no more than 100,000 each year.