The Trump administration has terminated the humanitarian program that enabled nearly 60,000 Haitians to live and work in the United States following an earthquake that devastated Haiti in 2010, killing thousands, displacing more than a million, and sparking an ongoing outbreak of cholera. An announcement made by Homeland Security officials Monday set an expiration date of July 2019 to allow for the affected to make arrangements to leave.
The Temporary Protected Status program, signed into law by President George H.W. Bush in 1990, allows foreign nationals from countries affected by natural disaster or armed conflict to remain in the U.S. and apply for work permits. Periodically, the government reviews each group and decides whether to maintain their status. The Obama administration renewed protections for Haitians several times, citing poor conditions at home—as Politico reports, roughly 40,000 people who lost their homes in the earthquake still live in camps.
Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke, facing a Thanksgiving deadline to renew the T.P.S. status for Haitians, decided against it. After consulting U.S. and Haitian officials (who asked the Trump administration to extend the protected status), Duke declared that the on-the-ground conditions in Haiti no longer warranted the protection granted under the program. Monday’s judgement was based on determinations that the “extraordinary conditions” for justifying their presence in the United States “no longer exist.”
“Since the 2010 earthquake, the number of displaced people in Haiti has decreased by 97 percent,” a statement from the Department of Homeland Security said. “Significant steps have been taken to improve the stability and quality of life for Haitian citizens, and Haiti is able to safely receive traditional levels of returned citizens.”
The Trump administration has repeatedly stated that the program is meant to be temporary, not a route to permanent residency in the U.S. Back in May, then-Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly granted Haitians a six-month T.P.S. extension, shorter than is standard, and suggested that they “need to start thinking about returning.” Consequently, thousands crossed the border into Canada, hoping to receive asylum in Quebec.
Monday’s decision sent dismay through the remaining Haitian communities in the U.S., who are primarily based in Florida. Those who have found jobs face the prospect of scouring for work in a country with high unemployment rates. For those who had children while living in the U.S., the options are even more bleak: they can leave their children (born U.S. citizens) with a guardian, take them back to the unfamiliar Haiti, or remain with them illegally in the U.S., constantly evading deportation. The effects will be felt sharply back in Haiti, too. The poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, its struggle to rebuild relies heavily on money sent home from the U.S. As the Times notes, remittances from the Haitian diaspora totaled $2.36 billion in 2016.
Among lawmakers who commented on the decision, the response was outrage—and bipartisan. “[Those] sent home will face dire consequences, including lack of housing, inadequate health services, and low prospects for employment,” wrote Senator Marco Rubio in The Miami Herald last week. Monday, Democratic Senator Bill Nelson called the decision “unconscionable.” “There is no reason to send 60,000 Haitians back to a country that cannot provide for them,” he tweeted. “I am strongly urging the administration to reconsider.”
Duke’s decision directly impacts Haitians, but also sends a sharp signal to the thousands of other T.P.S. beneficiaries living in America, indicating that they, too, might be forced to leave. This pressure appears to be trickling down directly from the White House, which has been bluntly explicit in outlining its efforts to stymie immigration, and expel those without permanent legal status. According to The Washington Post, as Duke grappled with T.P.S. decisions for Honduras and Nicaragua earlier this month, she received a call from Kelly, now Donald Trump’s chief of staff, urging her to press for a termination in line with the administration’s “wider strategic goal” on immigration. Duke didn't wholly buckle, granting a six-month renewal to Hondurans. But she did end T.P.S. for the 5,300 Nicaraguans, giving them until January 2019 to leave the country or try to get another immigration status.
The next group set to have its temporary protected status renewed or rescinded is the 200,000 or so Salvadorans who arrived in America after a series of devastating earthquakes in 2001. Duke has been given until January to decide whether to send thousands home to a country rife with gang violence. The White House, it seems, could not care less.
