Trump administration to end protected status for Haiti
- by Shelly Sherman
- in People
- — Nov 22, 2017
The decision by acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke gives Haitians 18 months to return to their impoverished Caribbean country or legalise their status in the United States. "Haiti is able to safely receive traditional levels of returned citizens".
Haitians are the third nationality to have their protected status terminated in past three months.
The decision to end TPS for Haitians is part of Mr Trump's broader efforts to tighten restrictions on immigration, and comes despite calls from even some fellow Republicans to continue the relief.
In September, Ms Duke ended protected status for citizens of Sudan as of 2018, but extended it for citizens of South Sudan through mid-2019.
Haitians who have been in the United States under TPS have played a significant role in rebuilding their country.
A Facebook page organizing the protest said they want the Temporary Protection Status renewed for all immigrants from Haiti and Central America while also asking for a "clean" Dream Act for children of immigrants.
"This is unfair to a country that has been going through so much, a political, social and economic situation", Dupuy said.
TPS status for an additional 200,000 Salvadorans, here since El Salvador was struck by a series of earthquakes in 2001, is due to expire in January. TPS now is granted to recipients from 13 foreign countries.
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But now, the Trump administration is ending the program that allowed them to do so.
While Haiti has made advances spurred by worldwide aid since the quake, it remains one of the poorest nations in the world. That said, ongoing natural disasters and global health challenges like HIV/AIDS, malaria, and unchecked cholera, have undermined Haiti's ability to meet its full potential.
Thinking about the Haitian TPS population in Massachusetts, Healey said, "I think about the fear, I think about the anxiety and I think about how unnecessary all of this is, and it's why I stood up along with others in advocating for the extension of TPS".
"Besides the human toll on Haitian TPS recipients and their families, it will be costly for their employers, ruinous to the up and coming neighborhoods where they often live, and destablilizing to their countries of origin", Saenz said.
"The community is very anxious", said Andrés Zaldivar, a South Hempstead resident and former TPS recipient who was granted political amnesty and is now a US citizen. "After all of this time, no conceivable objective is served by upending all of that and ordering them to return to some of the most unsafe and precarious countries on earth".
According to the Center for Migration Studies, thousands of Haitian TPS holders have homes they could be forced to leave behind.
"The decision to terminate TPS for Haiti was made after a review of the conditions upon which the country's original designation were based and whether those extraordinary but temporary conditions prevented Haiti from adequately handling the return of their nationals, as required by statute", DHS wrote in statement. Then-Secretary John Kelly agreed to extend it for another six months but indicated that status likely would not be renewed again. Kelly, now White House chief of staff, visited Haiti shortly after that initial announcement and later joined Vice President Mike Pence for a meeting in Miami with Haitian President Jovenel Moise.
