According to government documents and Homeland Security officials, the Trump administration on Thursday cut protections for hundreds of thousands of Haitians on Thursday and got off track to be targeted for deportation this summer. .
The decision was signed this week by Homeland Security Secretary Christie Noem and is the latest in President Trump’s radical crackdown on immigration, including those who have allowed the Biden administration to stay inside.
Haitians affected by this decision were under temporary protected status, aimed at helping Americans who are unable to return to their country safely and immediately due to natural disasters or armed conflicts. I lived in the United States. Over half a million Haitians in the US are eligible for status.
Before he took office, President Joseph R. Biden Jr. had granted them an 18-month extension of their deportation protections. On Thursday, Noem canceled the expansion. This means that these protections will expire in August, not February.
Noem must decide whether she will end the protection of the Haitians in full. Trump and other critics of temporary protected status say it’s not being used as intended, and instead serve as a path to staying in the country indefinitely.
Some Haitian immigrants have been protected since 2010, when the earthquake struck the country and the Obama administration first expanded its position to citizens.
Last month, the Trump administration announced that Venezuelans would lose their protected status since April. It was a blow to 600,000 people who believed they would not only be protected from deportation, but would also provide work permits until at least the fall of 2026.
Trump had shown that such a move was on the card for Haitian immigrants in position. “I will definitely cancel that,” Trump said in an October interview with Channel News Nation following the spread of false claims about Haitians eating pets in Ohio.
Speaking in an anonymity state, Homeland Security officials said the agency cut protections for six months because they didn’t want to make the final decision uncertain.
Already, immigrant advocates are challenging the Trump administration’s cuts to the federal court’s TPS program. During the first Trump administration, U.S. officials’ attempts to terminate programs in certain countries were suspended in federal courts.
On Wednesday evening, advocacy groups called for cuts to the Trump administration’s Venezuela Protection Status Program. They said the decision to cut protections for Venezuelans is illegal and they are asking judges to block the move.
“Venezuela is in crisis, and even Trump has admitted it. The influx of Venezuelans into the US due to their country’s humanitarian crisis is exactly why TPS exists,” he said in a statement. said Emi McLean, an attorney with the ACLU in Northern California who helps sue.
One of the lawyers in the case, Ahiran Allananam, who helps lead the UCLA School of Law Immigration and Policy Centre, is also a huge deal, with Haitians being protected, which could also be against the law. He said it could be. result.
“TPS serves as an important lifeline for many members of the Haitian community, and when Haiti is experiencing tremendous political, social and economic instability, they live in the United States. , I was able to work,” he said.
The Biden administration’s decision to expand the temporary protection status of Haitians last year cited ongoing issues in their country, including widespread violence and political instability.
Sherika Blanc, a 34-year-old Haitian woman who has been protecting her position since 2010, said the decision is intensifying. Blanc was the plaintiff in a lawsuit that prevented the Trump administration from abolishing protections for Haitians in 2018.
“My heart is broken and the uncertainty of what is going to happen now and the current situation in Haiti is that uncertainty,” she said.
Blanc said she is considering leaving the US with her four children born in the country.
“Essentially, we don’t want,” she said.
