Latest news with #TPS
&w=3840&q=100)
First Post
an hour ago
- Politics
- First Post
Trump revokes temporary protection for 520,000 Haitians
The Department of Homeland Security said it was ending Temporary Protected Status for Haitians on September 2 and encouraged those who were living in the United States under the program to return home read more The Trump administration said Friday it is terminating temporary legal protections that allowed more than 520,000 Haitians to live in the United States. The United States grants Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to foreign citizens who cannot safely return home because of war, natural disasters or other 'extraordinary' conditions. The Department of Homeland Security said it was ending TPS for Haitians on September 2 and encouraged those who were living in the United States under the program to return home. Former president Joe Biden extended TPS for Haitians before leaving office, allowing them to reside in the United States until February 2026. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD But the Trump administration announced in February that it was canceling the extension. It said on Friday it was terminating TPS for Haitians altogether on September 2. 'The environmental situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home,' DHS said. Permitting Haitian nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is contrary to US national interest, it added. Struck by a devastating earthquake in 2010, Haiti has suffered from political instability for decades and more recently from increasing violence by armed groups. The US State Department currently advises Americans not to travel to Haiti 'due to kidnapping, crime, civil unrest and limited heath care.' President Donald Trump has pledged to carry out the largest deportation campaign in US history and curb immigration, mainly from Latin American nations. Trump ordered a review of the TPS program on his return to the White House and his administration has revoked TPS protections for Afghans and Venezuelans in addition to Haitians. During his campaign Trump made baseless claims that an Ohio city had seen a recent influx of Haitian migrants who were stealing and eating residents' cats and dogs. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD A UN human rights expert called on the United States and other nations in March not to expel Haitians back to their violence-plagued country. William O'Neill, a UN-designated expert on human rights in Haiti, said deporting people back there would be unsafe. 'Violent criminal groups continue to extend and consolidate their hold beyond the capital,' O'Neill said. 'They kill, rape, terrorize, set fire to homes, orphanages, schools, hospitals, places of worship, recruit children and infiltrate all spheres of society.'
India Today
an hour ago
- Politics
- India Today
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 said that conditions in Haiti have improved and Haitians no longer meet the conditions for the temporary legal 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 Recently, the US Supreme Court overturned a federal judge's order preventing the administration from revoking the parole 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 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' of thousands of Venezuelans and some Afghans have been told already that they're losing their TPS 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 advised TPS holders to return to Haiti using a mobile application called CBP 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 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 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 lives in Springfield, Ohio, with his wife and two children, and he works in a car parts manufacturing plant.- Ends
Boston Globe
2 hours ago
- Politics
- Boston Globe
White House ending protected status for Haitian migrants, sparking fears in Massachusetts
The department set a Sept. 2 termination date for Haitians living in the country under temporary protected status. (The program ends Aug. 3 but officially takes effect Sept. 2). Protected status shields immigrants from deportation and grants them work permits. It is reserved for people fleeing countries in upheaval. 'This decision restores integrity in our immigration system and ensures that Temporary Protective Status is actually temporary,' a DHS spokesperson said in a statement. 'The environmental situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home.' Advertisement In Massachusetts, Haitians are one of the state's largest immigrant populations. The local Haitian community and advocates for them decried President Trump's undoing of the protections. Pastor Dieufort Fleurissaint, a Haitian community advocate known by his nickname, Pastor Keke, said there was 'consternation' in Boston's Haitian community Friday evening as word spread. 'Everyone is calling to ask what's going to happen to their future here, to their employment, to the future of their children,' he said in a telephone interview. Fleurissaint said the conditions in Haiti have not improved as federal officials have suggested. Advertisement 'You have a humanitarian collapse,' he said. 'The decision today will leave returning Haitian citizens at very high risk of persecution, danger, homelessness. People have nowhere to go.' Fleurissaint said he was still processing the news himself. 'The only hope we have is God,' he said. 'God and to call upon our friends and allies, elected officials, to advocate on our behalf, so these families can be protected and find a way to enact permanent solutions.' Haitians were granted temporary protected status after the island nation suffered a devastating earthquake on Jan. 12, 2010. The designation has been extended several times. President Joe Biden extended it until 2026 right before he left office. Ruthzee Louijeune, 'It is also bad for our economy,' she said. 'Haitian health care workers with TPS helped our country get through the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, often to the detriment of their own bodies and families," she said. 'Anyone who states that country conditions have improved in Haiti is actively and affirmatively lying,' she said. Representative Ayanna Pressley condemned the DHS decision on social media as 'an act of policy violence that could literally be a death sentence.' 'We should NOT be deporting anyone to a nation still dealing with a grave humanitarian crisis like Haiti,' Pressley wrote on Heather Yountz, senior immigration staff attorney at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, said, 'This is a heartbreaking example of the Trump administration stripping people of their legal status without a justified reason simply to fulfill the harmful mass deportations he promised.' Advertisement The idea that the gang-ridden country which hasn't seen an election in nearly a decade is safer 'is preposterous,' Yountz said. After a review of the conditions in Haiti from US Citizenship and Immigration Services and in consultation with the US Department of State, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem determined that Haitians no longer meet the requirements for TPS, Friday's statement said. The agency encouraged Haitians who don't have another means of gaining lawful status after their TPS status expires to self-deport, and use the US Customs and Border Protection app to report themselves leaving the country. Despite DHS's claims that Haitians could return home 'safely,' dozens of Haitians interviewed by the Globe in the past year have said that they would be unable to go back to Haiti without the threat of violence and severe economic instability back in their country. The State Department also cautions US citizens not to visit Haiti, The In Massachusetts, immigration advocates had been preparing for this moment since the Trump administration announced back in February that it would revoke the Biden extension of Temporary Protected Status for Haitian immigrants. 'We've been expecting this,' said Sarang Sekhavat, the Chief of Staff at the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition. 'But it's horrible regardless.' Advertisement Some TPS holders have lived in Massachusetts for more than a decade after fleeing the aftermath of the earthquake, severe gang violence, and political turmoil. In 2021, the country's president was assassinated. 'It's not like the situation in Haiti has gotten better,' Sekhavat said. Sekhavat said that MIRA and its partners have been encouraging Haitians here under TPS to consult with attorneys, to see what kinds of options might be available to them. Some may have other means to stay in the country legally, like applying for asylum, or if they have US relatives or employers who could petition for their legal status. But, Sekhavat said, 'unfortunately, there's not a blanket answer for these folks.' Boston-based Lawyers for Civil Rights, The group said that DHS's assertions that conditions in Haiti have improved are 'simply false.' 'Haiti is experiencing unprecedented political violence, instability, and humanitarian collapse. Even the U.S. State Department warns Americans not to travel there — yet DHS insists Haitian families can safely return? That contradiction is indefensible,' the statement said. 'We are not backing down. We will use every legal tool at our disposal to stop this cruel and unlawful termination,' the statement added. Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio can be reached at
Miami Herald
4 hours ago
- Politics
- Miami Herald
‘Kiss of death': South Florida reacts to end of Haiti's Temporary Protected Status
Nadine Mallebranche was only five years old when her family fled the political upheaval of Francois 'Baby Doc' Duvalier's Haiti in the late 1980s. In the United States, the Mallebranche family found safety. After her parents died when she was 13, Mallebranche bounced from foster home to foster home. Social workers tried to help her with her immigration case, but it fell through the cracks, she said. She remained unsure of her legal status for decades. Everything changed for Mallebranche when Haitians were granted deportation protections and work permits under Temporary Protected Status. For the last 15 years, she has not had to fear being sent back to a country she doesn't remember. She could legally work as a store supervisor. 'It was a lifeline,' she told the Miami Herald. But on Friday, Mallebranche, now 45, learned that the Trump administration is ending TPS for over half-a-million Haitians living in the United States. Come this fall, she could be forced to return to a gang-ridden Caribbean country struggling with record hunger and political instability. 'I'm facing potential deportation to a country that is overrun by criminal gangs,' said Mallebranche. 'The only home that I know is the United States.' In the first six months of 2025, extreme violence in Haiti killed about 2,700 people . Sexual violence and kidnappings are rampant. Almost 1.3 million people are internally displaced and 5.7 million people face acute hunger. READ MORE: Trump ends TPS for Haitians. More than a half-million people now face deportation But a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said on Friday that 'the environmental situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home' — even as the State Department warns Americans to not travel there at all because of kidnapping, civil unrest, limited healthcare, and extreme gang violence. This week, the agency urged Americans to 'depart as soon as possible.' Litigation challenging the termination of Haiti's TPS is very likely. But the Trump administration's decision to end TPS has sent shock waves through South Florida, the heart of the Haitian diaspora in the United States. Over 300,000 Haitians call the Miami metro area home, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Nearly 511,000 live in Florida. In South Florida, advocates and community leaders condemned Homeland Security's decision on Friday, calling it a dangerous and wicked policy that threatens the lives of Haitians if they are forced to return there. 'Deporting Haitians back to Haiti is a kiss of death,' said U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, the federal lawmaker who represents Miami. 'This news is insanity on steroids, and it is heartbreaking to my community. We cannot send anymore people back to Haiti. This ruling is hateful, inhumane and heartless.' The Florida Immigrant Coalition said in a statement that 'Haiti is not in any shape to sustain human dignity and life, and any suggestion to the contrary is nothing but lies.' 'Forcing Haitians to return to Haiti right now is not just morally indefensible, it is a humanitarian catastrophe,' said Tessa Petit, the Haitian-born director of the coalition. One Haitian TPS holder who asked not to be named condemned the decision and emphasized the contribution of Haitian immigrants to the United States. 'These are the hands that heal you, feed you, teach your children, and serve your communities. Revoking Haitian TPS is not policy, it's humane and economic sabotage. You don't get to call people essential when it benefits you, then disposable when it doesn't,' she said. Others, like the Board of the Haitian American Chamber of Commerce in Florida, shared messages of support to those affected, which includes many Haitian families where status for different members ranges from undocumented to U.S. citizenship. 'Our community's strength has always been rooted in resilience, unity, and the pursuit of opportunity. We will continue to stand together in that spirit,' said the coalition in a statement. Homeland Security said in Friday's announcement of the termination that it 'encouraged' Haitians to self-deport. Some Haitians have previously told the Herald that they would rather risk immigration detention in the United States than return to Haiti. As part of a widespread crackdown on immigration, the Trump administration has ended humanitarian protections for immigrants from countries in turmoil, like Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti. The previous administration granted an 18-month extension of the protections in January, following a country review, because conditions in Haiti are so dangerous. Current Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem rolled back the year-and-a half-long extension, a decision that is being litigated in federal courts. On Friday, the agency ended Haiti's TPS altogether. The TPS designation expires on Aug. 3, and the termination kicks into effect a month later, on Sept. 2. 'This decision restores integrity in our immigration system and ensures that Temporary Protective Status is actually temporary,' the DHS spokesperson said. Congress created TPS in 1990 as a way to grant deportation protections and work permits to people who are already in the United States and cannot return home to countries navigating war, conflict or natural disasters. The secretary of Homeland Security can designate a country for TPS, and periodically conduct a review to determine whether conditions warrant extensions of current designations or expansions that can include more people under the protections. Large swaths of Haiti, including about 90% of its capital Port-au-Prince, are under the control of criminal gangs that terrorize the population. The country is as dangerous for children as the Gaza Strip, according to a recent UN report. A lack of basic necessities, a government in collapse and a crumbling healthcare system make life extremely difficult for people in the country, which has not held elections since 2016. Mallebranche cannot imagine returning to a country in turmoil, a homeland where she hasn't stepped foot in decades. She hasn't told loved ones yet she might be deported. 'This is infuriating, not only for me, but every other person that this is now happening to. What are we supposed to do?'
Time of India
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Breaking news live: 19 killed, 15 missing in Kenya protest violence, says rights group
02:36 (IST) Jun 28 The Trump administration has announced it will end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for around 500,000 Haitians living in the United States, many of whom have been in the country for over ten years. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said on Friday that conditions in Haiti have 'improved' enough for TPS to be withdrawn, meaning those affected could now face deportation. This decision follows the administration's move three months ago to cancel protections for thousands of Haitians who had legally entered under a humanitarian parole programme. Both steps are part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to reduce immigration. TPS allows nationals from countries affected by conflict or disasters to live and work legally in the US. With the change, many Haitians will now have to leave or find other legal ways to stay.
