U.S. to revoke immigration status of Haitian migrants in September

The Trump administration will revoke the legal status and work permits of hundreds of thousands of Haitian migrants in early September, arguing that conditions in Haiti have sufficiently improved for them to return home, the Department of Homeland Security announced Friday.

The department said it would terminate Haiti’s longstanding Temporary Protected Status program, which has allowed immigrants from the crisis-stricken Caribbean nation to live and work in the U.S. legally since 2010, following the devastating earthquake that year. 

If they don’t qualify for another legal immigration status — like asylum or a green card — those who lose their TPS protections will become ineligible to work in the U.S. legally and eligible to be arrested and deported by federal immigration authorities. 

The Trump administration on Friday urged Haitians with TPS to voluntarily leave the U.S. by using a smartphone app that officials have converted into a system to facilitate self-deportations. The administration has warned immigrants in the U.S. illegally that if they don’t self-deport, they will be found, arrested and forcibly deported.

“This decision restores integrity in our immigration system and ensures that Temporary Protective Status is actually temporary,” DHS said in a statement. “The environmental situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home.”

As of late last year, more than a quarter of a million Haitians — 260,790 — had been approved for TPS, according to government data compiled by Congress’ research unit. DHS said their TPS protections would lapse on Sept. 2.

Created by Congress in 1990, TPS allows the federal government to offer migrants work permits and a reprieve from deportation if their home countries are engulfed in a crisis, such as a war or an environmental disaster. 

Despite the Trump administration’s assertions on Friday, the U.S. government has described Haiti as a country with deep political instability and plagued by gang violence and widespread poverty. In fact, the State Department instructs Americans not to visit Haiti in a Level 4 travel advisory, warning them about the threat of “robbery, carjackings, sexual assault, and kidnappings for ransom.”

The Biden administration vastly expanded the TPS program for Haitians, allowing many of those who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border — illegally and legally — to qualify for the initiative. It also used TPS at an unprecedented scale to offer legal status to hundreds of thousands migrants from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Venezuela, Ukraine and other nations.

But President Trump’s administration has sought to severely curtail TPS programs, as part of its efforts to oversee the largest deportation effort in American history.

Since Mr. Trump took office, officials have announced plans to terminate TPS protections for Afghans, Cameronians and Venezuelans. Last month, the Supreme Court allowed the administration to end the work permits and deportation protections of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans TPS recipients.