The decision announced Thursday means they would lose their work permits and could be eligible to be removed from the country by August of this year.
The Trump administration has decided to remove protections for around 500,000 Haitians that prevented their deportation from the United States, putting them at risk of losing their work permits and facing potential removal from the country as early as August.
This move is part of a broader initiative by the Trump administration to fulfill its campaign promises of conducting large-scale deportations and specifically reducing the utilization of Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a program that was significantly expanded during the Biden administration to encompass approximately 1 million immigrants.
The Department of Homeland Security released a statement indicating that it was overturning the Biden administration’s decision to extend Temporary Protected Status to Haitians. This status allows individuals to reside in the US legally but does not offer a permanent route to citizenship.
People with the protection are reliant on the government renewing their status when it expires. Critics, including Republicans and the Trump administration, have said that over time the renewal of the protection status becomes automatic, regardless of what is happening in the person’s home country.
“For decades the TPS system has been exploited and abused,”Homeland Security said in the statement announcing the change. “For example, Haiti has been designated for TPS since 2010. The data shows each extension of the country’s TPS designation allowed more Haitian nationals, even those who entered the U.S. illegally, to qualify for legal protected status.”
Homeland Security said an estimated 57,000 Haitians were eligible for TPS protections as of 2011, but by July of last year, that number had climbed to 520,694.
It’s not immediately clear how quickly they could be deported once their protections expire. Some may apply for other types of protection, and there are logistical challenges to carrying out such large-scale deportations.
Haiti’s migration director, Jean Negot Bonheur Delva, said only 21 Haitians have been deported so far under the Trump administration, but he noted that the group had already been scheduled for deportation under Biden. There were a total of nine flights to Haiti in 2024, according to Witness at the Border, an advocacy group that tracks flight data.
Delva cited worries about the strain of sending people back to a country still reeling from violence and where more than 1 million people are homeless because of gang violence.
“It’s very sad that people who left Haiti to look for a better life elsewhere … will come back,” Delva said. “With the insecurity problem, the lack of resources, they will be miserable.”
More than 5,600 people were reported killed last year in Haiti, according to the U.N. And many of the displaced are living in overcrowded makeshift shelters including abandoned government buildings where rapes are becoming increasingly common.
Gangs control 85% of Haiti’s capital and have launched new attacks to seize control of even more territory. Recent massacres have claimed the lives of hundreds of civilians.
Delva said Haiti’s government recently created a commission to help those deported.
“They are children of Haiti. A mother must receive her children from wherever they are,” he said.
Congress created TPS in 1990 to prevent deportations to countries suffering from natural disasters or civil strife, giving people authorization to work in increments of up to 18 months at a time.
Toward the end of the Biden administration, 1 million immigrants from 17 countries were protected by TPS, including people from Venezuela, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Sudan, Ukraine and Lebanon.
The Trump administration has already moved to end the protections for Venezuelans.
Two nonprofit groups Thursday filed a lawsuit challenging that decision.
