Trump orders end to special immigration protections for half-million Haitians
The Department of Homeland Security said Friday that it is terminating legal protections for hundreds of thousands of Haitians, setting them up for potential deportation.DHS said that conditions in Haiti have improved and Haitians no longer meet the conditions for the temporary legal protections.The termination of temporary protected status, or TPS, applies to about 500,000 Haitians who are already in the United States, some of whom have lived here for more than a decade. It comes three months after the Trump administration revoked legal protections for thousands of Haitians who arrived legally in the country under a humanitarian parole program, and it is part of a series of measures implemented to curb immigration.advertisement
Recently, the US Supreme Court overturned a federal judge's order preventing the administration from revoking the parole program.TPS allows people already in the United States to stay and work legally if their homelands are deemed unsafe. Immigrants from 17 countries, including Haiti, Afghanistan, Sudan and Lebanon, were receiving those protections before President Donald Trump took office for his second term in January.President Trump is ending protections and programs for immigrants as part of his mass deportations promises. During his political campaign he said his administration would scale back the use of TPS, which covered more than 1 million immigrants. His campaign highlighted unfounded claims that Haitians who live and work legally in Springfield, Ohio, as TPS holders were eating their neighbors' pets.Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans and some Afghans have been told already that they're losing their TPS status.advertisementSome of the Haitians who benefit from TPS have requested asylum or other lawful immigration status that could protect them from deportation, although it is not clear how many could be left without any relief.'This decision restores integrity in our immigration system and ensures that Temporary Protective Status is actually temporary,' a DHS spokesperson said. 'The environmental situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home.'The Department of State, nonetheless, has not changed its travel advisory and still recommends Americans 'do not travel to Haiti due to kidnapping, crime, civil unrest, and limited health care.'Temporary protected status for Haitians expires on Aug. 3, and the termination will be effective on Sept. 2, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said.DHS advised TPS holders to return to Haiti using a mobile application called CBP Home.Gang violence has displaced 1.3 million people across Haiti as the local government and international community struggle to contain an spiralling crisis, according to a recent report from the International Organisation for Migration. The report warned of a 24 per cent increase in displaced people since December, with gunmen having chased 11per cent of Haiti's nearly 12 million inhabitants from their home.advertisement'Deporting people back to these conditions is a death sentence for many, stripping them of their fundamental right to safety and dignity,' said Tessa Pettit, a Haitian-American who is executive director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition.Frantz Desir, 36, has been in the US since 2022 on asylum, but he says he is concerned by the Trump administration's decision to terminate TPS.'You see your friends who used to go to work every day, and suddenly—without being sick or fired—they just can't go anymore. It hits you. Even if it hasn't happened to you yet, you start to worry, 'What if it's me next?''Desir says his asylum court date was set for this year, but the judge rescheduled it for 2028.Desir lives in Springfield, Ohio, with his wife and two children, and he works in a car parts manufacturing plant.- Ends
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
42 minutes ago
- Time of India
‘Putin Respects Us': Trump BONDS With Russian President, Leaves Zelensky SHOCKED
U.S. President Donald Trump has responded to praise by his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Trump said Putin made some very nice statements and that he now respects the U.S. Earlier, Putin claimed that Trump was a very courageous man as he applauded his efforts to bring peace to the Middle East and Ukraine. Putin also noted how Trump has survived two attempts on his life. Watch for more details. Read More
Deccan Herald
43 minutes ago
- Deccan Herald
50 years of Emergency and the Trump-ceasefire saga 2.0
Greetings readers, A slew of events unfolded in the political arena this week, with US President Donald Trump effortlessly taking the center stage. Forced by his habit of taking credits, Trump 'almost' took the credit for brokering a ceasefire between Israel and Iran too, after days of conflict. Back home, Shashi Tharoor and his English-speaking skills dominated the headlines, with the Congress leader praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi post Operation Sindoor. The praise is not sitting right with his party leadership and speculations have emerged of Tharoor looking for alternatives with his newly found 'wings'. So bear with us as we unpack each of the significant political developments one by one in this week's DH Political Theatre. A Nobel 'act'.After 12 days of air strikes on each other, and a cameo by the US–much like President Trump's cameos in several TV shows and movies prior to him stepping into politics, Iran and Israel finally agreed to a ceasefire on Tuesday, albeit a fragile one. Trump first declared a ceasefire between the two West Asian nations, hours after Iran fired missiles at the US military base in Qatar on Monday night. Trump later berated both sides for violating the ceasefire he had announced. While Iran said it would respect the truce if Israel did, Israel said it had refrained from further in announcing it had agreed to Trump's plan, said it had achieved all its military prior to all this, Trump was probably just inches away from clinching the Nobel Peace Prize, when towing the lines of previous US Presidents, he decided to meddle in the Middle East and sent B-2 bombers to attack Iran's nuclear sites. While the damage incurred by Iran's nuclear dreams cannot be ascertained clearly, the damage to Trump's Nobel dreams is done and in his own words the award may once again end up in the hands of a 'liberal'. Emergency 50-50.'The biggest flaw of democracy is that you can't permanently take someone out of the picture. …What can you even call those High Court judges, who so promptly hand down verdicts against the government. They are all ungrateful.'The above excerpt from Urdu and Hindi author Rahi Masoom Raza's 1978 book Katra Bi Arzoo perfectly encapsulates the power of a democratic setup and why political leaders feel the need to trample upon it for extending their year marked the 50th anniversary of the Emergency imposed by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on June 25, lesson that can be learned from the chapter of Emergency of Indian history is the perils of the occasion, Home Minister Amit Shah released a book titled The Emergency Diaries - Years that Forged a Leader, a compilation of Modi's experiences during the anti-Emergency book describes how 25-year-old Modi distributed many newspapers published secretly in markets, among students and women, reminiscent of the times when the prime minister was probably not aversive to press conferences its futile attempts to justifying the reasons for the imposition of Emergency, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh shared a White Paper tabled in Parliament on July 21, 1975 saying the government had imposed Emergency to put democracy "back on the rails" and in the wake of activities of "fascist groups" in the country that crossed all permissible president Mallikarjun Kharge said an 'undeclared emergency' has been prevailing in the country for the last 11 years, an accusation which did not sit well with the BJP leaders.'Saffron'...gives you wings?.'Don't ask permission to fly. The wings are yours and the sky belongs to no one,' read a post on X by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor sometime after party chief Mallikarjun Kharge expressed displeasure with the Thiruvananthapuram MP's praise for PM Modi. Tharoor, in an article published in a leading newspaper on Monday, said Modi's energy, dynamism and willingness to engage remained a "prime asset" for India on the global stage but deserved greater backing. The article has elevated the uneasiness in the relationship between the Congress leadership and Tharoor. Though Tharoor on Tuesday tried to clear the air around the issue and said that his article was not a sign of his "leaping to join" BJP and just a statement of national unity, it did not stop Congress leaders from questioning Tharoor's conduct since he was chosen to be part of an all-party delegation on Operation Sindoor. Congress' Manickam Tagore even warned his Lok Sabha colleague that free birds should be aware of 'hawks, vultures, and eagles' preying in the the 'free-spirited' Tharoor will stop by Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Marg and are BJP leaders secretly taking English speaking lessons, is still unclear. Bypolls: A boost for AAP and Trinamool Congress retained their four sitting seats in the bypolls on Thursday while Congress snatched one held by a former Left-backed independent in Kerala, putting the ruling CPM-led Left Democratic Front on the won its two sitting seats in Gujarat's Visavadar and Punjab's Ludhiana West while it was pushed a distant third in Gujarat's Kadi, where the BJP retained the seat. Trinamool Congress won the Kaliganj seat while in Kerala's Nilambur, Congress won with a convincing margin against the CPM. Buoyed by the victory, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal told reporters that if the bypolls were semi-finals to 2027 elections then there will be a 'typhoon in 2027.' No mention of Pahalgam in SCO document .Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday refused to sign the joint communique of the Shanghai Cooperation Organsation's defence ministers meeting as the document neither mentioned the dastardly Pahalgam terrorist attack nor took into account India's concerns on terror strikes emanating from Pakistan. Because of India's refusal, the SCO, which follows the principle of consensus, could not issue a joint statement after the two-day meeting at Qingdao, sending a strong message to Pakistan and its all-weather ally China, who are understood to be the main players behind making such a draft. Kanhaiya, the twelfth leader Kanhaiya Kumar accepted being "the twelfth man" in Bihar polls and said that he will contest the upcoming elections if the party tells him a cricketing analogy, Kumar said that just like batting, bowling, and fielding are responsibilities that have to be fulfilled on the cricket field, fighting polls is also a responsibility in politics."If the captain tells me to sit outside and deliver drinks for those at the crease, I will do that. And if the captain tells me to, I will also pad up and bat," Kumar said. He also said that there is no confusion or dispute in the 'Mahagathbandhan' over Tejashwi Yadav being the main face for the Bihar chief minister's post. That is all about the political drama that unfolded this week. DH Political Theatre will come back again next week with more political advancements from around the world. Exit Stage Left, DH Newsletters Team
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Was Iran's Khamenei on Israel's ‘Red Wedding' hit list? Israeli Defence minister's chilling admission hints so
The 'Red Wedding' begins Live Events Inside the plot: Trickery and timing Trump's bunker-busters Khamenei's defiant reappearance Israel's warning after the guns fell silent No regime change, yet talks ahead (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel Israel wanted Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dead. Defence Minister Israel Katz left little doubt when he spoke on national television after the guns fell silent. 'I estimate that if Khamenei had been in our sights, we would have taken him out,' Katz told Kan TV. He said Iran's Supreme Leader 'understood this, went very deep underground and broke off contacts with the commanders… so in the end it wasn't realistic.'Katz repeated the message to Channel 13: 'We searched a lot.' His admission marks Israel's first clear statement that removing Iran's highest cleric was an active goal during the war. The aim was not regime change, he insisted, but to fracture Tehran's chain of command while bombs Israeli Air Force called its opening assault ' Red Wedding ' — a nod to the infamous massacre in Game of Thrones where trusted leaders were cut down at a wedding 13 June, more than 200 Israeli warplanes pounded 100 targets across Iran. According to the Wall Street Journal , this single strike killed nine top nuclear scientists before dawn. Among the dead were General Hossein Salami of the Revolutionary Guard , General Mohammad Bagheri, Iran's Chief of Staff, and Gholam Ali Rashid, the emergency commander.A giant billboard in Tehran now bears their faces — reminders of how one night turned Iran's leadership upside strikes were planned for months. Israeli spies smuggled drone parts into Iran in shipping containers and trucks. Mossad teams hid explosive quadcopters near key missile sites and air missions in Greek skies, and real-life raids on Houthi targets in Yemen, sharpened the Israeli Air Force's long-range skills. All that practice came together on one carefully chosen to Daily MailOnline, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu even faked his son Avner's wedding to mislead Iranian watchers. He leaked a false feud with President Trump to suggest hesitation in Washington. In truth, Netanyahu had signed off on the airstrikes on 9 gamble nearly fell apart when word leaked to Tehran. But Iranian commanders, instead of scattering, gathered for what they thought was a crisis meeting. That sealed their fate.'Rather than scattering, they gathered — sealing their fate,' wrote the Wall Street Journal, quoting Israeli Israel's jets roared over Tehran, US President Trump made his own threats public. On 17 June, he wrote on Truth Social, 'We know exactly where the so-called 'Supreme Leader' is hiding… We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now.'Yet behind the scenes, the US was preparing its own the same night as Israel's attacks, Trump ordered Operation Midnight Hammer — precision strikes with B-2 bombers and Tomahawk missiles targeting three major Iranian nuclear sites. The aim was to crack open deep-buried bunkers Iran had built over decades. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed, 'It was a total success… Not only does our own intelligence say that, but even the Iranian foreign minister and the United Nations agreed.'Trump later signalled that back-channel talks could follow. 'Do the deal,' he posted online. The White House said negotiations for a 'non-enrichment civil nuclear programme' might start soon with help from Qatar.A leaked US report, however, suggests some uranium might have been moved beforehand. Trump brushed that off: 'Nothing was taken out… too dangerous, and very heavy and hard to move!' he said in an online Supreme Leader vanished just as the missiles struck. The Associated Press reported he did not appear in public for days. He re-emerged only when the ceasefire was sealed on 25 June, posting a recorded video on Iranian state TV.'The Islamic Republic emerged victorious and delivered a harsh slap to America's face,' Khamenei declared. On his official X account, he called Israel a 'fallacious Zionist regime' that was 'crushed under the blows of the Islamic Republic.'He boasted Iran's retaliatory missile strike on the US base at Al-Udeid in Qatar 'delivered a heavy slap to the US's face.' But images of smoking bunkers and flattened research sites told another confirmed the hunt for Khamenei has ended for now. Speaking to Channel 13, he said: 'There's a difference — before the ceasefire, after the ceasefire.'He advised Iran's top cleric to stay underground. 'I wouldn't recommend that he stay tranquil. He should learn from the late Nasrallah, who sat for a long time deep in the bunker. I recommend that he do the same thing.'Nasrallah, Hezbollah's leader, was killed in an Israeli strike last year — another sign Israel's assassinations reach beyond its also admitted Israel still does not know where all of Iran's enriched uranium is hidden. But he insisted the attacks had set back Tehran's nuclear ambitions 'by long years.'Trump's message has shifted too. Despite the bunker-busters, he insists a deal is possible. The White House says talks may soon restart, with Qatar acting as said, 'The US remains focused on diplomacy and peace.' But Iranian officials deny any plan to return to the table for Azizi from the German Institute for International and Security Affairs summed up Tehran's problem: 'There must be some sort of purge. But who will implement it? That is the question.'Twelve days of air raids ended with bombed-out bunkers and dead generals, but no regime collapse. Israel's gamble exposed Iran's weak air defences and the depth of its infiltration. For Tel Aviv, the message is clear: they can strike again if needed — with or without Katz told Channel 13, 'We don't need permission for these things.'The Red Wedding may be over, but its aftershocks are only beginning.
