Washington.- The U.S. Government extended until February 2026 the protections stipulated under the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for around half a million immigrants from Haiti, after a judge blocked the decision of President Donald Trump’s Executive Branch to end the program.
“The designation of TPS for Haiti and related benefits were scheduled to expire on September 2, 2025,” indicates an alert from the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which adds that after the decision of a federal court in the Eastern District of New York, “the effective date of any termination will not be before February 3, 2026.”
The DHS announced in June its intention to end deportation protections and work permits for nearly 521,000 Haitians who were protected by this protection, after the Government of former President Joe Biden (2021-2025) extended the benefit until 2026.
In the communication published on Friday on its website, the DHS insisted on its disagreement with the judge’s order and pointed out that last May the Supreme Court set a precedent in its favor when it gave the Trump Administration free rein to revoke the TPS that protects more than 300,000 Venezuelans.
The DHS warned that it “strongly disagrees with this decision” of the federal court in New York regarding the fate of Haitian immigrants and reported that it “is working to determine the next steps” in this case.
TPS is a protection granted to citizens of a specific country who migrate to the United States due to a natural disaster or armed conflict, and it allows them to live and work in the country until the date the U.S. Government considers they can safely return.
DHS Secretary
Kristi Noem had ordered last February to modify the extension period granted by Biden and set August 3 as the end date, although she gave the beneficiaries until September 2 and
encouraged them to self-deport.
Haiti has been designated for TPS several times due to various crises, including the
devastating 2010 earthquake and severe instability in the country, subjected to gang violence.
The U.S. executive said it made the decision to end the program after determining that the environmental situation in Haiti “has improved enough” for its citizens to return home safely.
The Haitian immigrants had already suffered a hard blow after the Supreme Court allowed the Trump government to end the temporary protection, known as ‘humanitarian parole’, which gave legal status to more than half a million immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
