SAN DIEGO (AP) — Another 300,000 Haitians already in the United States are eligible for temporary legal status because conditions in the unrest-torn Caribbean country are considered too unsafe for them to return, the Department of Homeland Security said Friday.
The major expansion of Temporary Protected Status applies to Haitians who were in the United States on June 3 and lasts through Feb. 3, 2026. An extension through Feb. 3, 2026, is also being offered to the estimated 200,000 Haitians who already held TPS, which was created by Congress in 1990 to prevent deportations to countries facing natural disasters or civil war.
This move – one of the largest expansions of TPS – creates a new sharp policy contrast on immigration President Joe Biden and its predecessor, Donald Trumpwho, during his tenure in the White House, wanted to end the temporary status of many countries, including Haiti.
Gangs have rampaged through the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas, killing, raping and kidnapping thousands of people in recent years and leaving hundreds of thousands of others homeless and jobless, in turn deepening poverty.
“Several regions in Haiti continue to face violence or insecurity, and many have limited access to safety, health care, food and water,” Homeland Security said in a news release. “Haiti is particularly prone to flooding and mudslides, and often experiences significant damage from storms, floods and earthquakes. These overlapping humanitarian challenges have resulted in continued urgent humanitarian needs.”
Homeland Security estimates that another 309,000 Haitians will be eligible for TPS, the second expansion for Haitians. About 200,000 Haitians have already received TPS under previous offers, according to the Congressional Research Service, the first after a devastating earthquake in 2010 and the second amid political unrest in 2021.
Currently, there are almost 900,000 people from 16 countries registered for TPS. The largest group consists of Haiti, Venezuela, El Salvador, Honduras and Ukraine.
Haiti has posed a thorny challenge for a government that has tried to discourage illegal crossings, most recently by temporarily suspending the asylum process for people who cross the border illegally. The government said this week that arrests for illegal crossings have fallen by more than 40% since the asylum freeze.
In 2021, about 16,000 predominantly Haitian migrants gathered on the banks of the Rio Grande in the small Texas town of Del Rio, leading to large-scale deportations. Subsequently, border arrests of Haitians plummeted, even before January 2023, when the government introduced an online app called CBP One, required to legally enter the country at land crossings with Mexico, and began allowing up to 30,000 people per month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to fly into the country for two years if they have financial sponsors.
Haitians were arrested just 142 times in May for illegally crossing the border from Mexico, down from a peak of nearly 18,000 in September 2021, but some are taking the dangerous route by sea. On Wednesday, a group of more than a hundred Haitians arrived in a sailboat off the coast of the lower Florida Keys.
The Haitian Bridge Alliance, like other advocacy groups, praised the administration for “a crucial move,” while also urging it to halt deportations to Haiti. But Homeland Security indicated that deportations would continue for those attempting to enter illegally, and said it “will continue to enforce U.S. laws and policies in the Florida Straits and the Caribbean, as well as along the southwest border.”
