BOSTON — The Trump administration has rolled back an 18-month extension of deportation protections for over half a million Haitians living in the U.S.
Under the Biden administration, Haiti’s Temporary Protected Status was extended through February 3, 2026.
Protection from deportation and work permits are now set to end on August 3.
The directive from the Department of Homeland Security impacts tens of thousands of Haitian immigrants who live in Massachusetts, which has the third largest population of Haitians in the country.
“It does this country no good to try to ship people back to a dangerous country like Haiti,” said Jeff Thielman, President & CEO of the International Institute of New England. “You will see communities ripped apart. You will see families ripped apart.”
Thielman said his organization has served over 16,000 people from Haiti over the past two years.
“A lot of people in TPS are working in industries where we need people,” said Thielman. “This a bad policy financially. It’s bad for people who have followed all the rules.”
According to the Department of Homeland Security, about 57,000 Haitians registered for Temporary Protective Status following a devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake in 2010.
That status was renewed under the Biden administration in 2021 amid civil unrest after the assassination of Haiti’s president
“This will have disastrous consequences for them. These are people that have been here, some since 2010,” said immigration attorney Giselle Rodriguez. “A lot of them have had U.S.-born citizen children here in the U.S.”
Rodriguez is encouraging people to come up with a family preparedness plan.
She said those who have crossed the border without a visa cannot adjust their status through U.S.-born children.
“It’s horrific thinking about the family separation,” she said.
The decision is part of a sweeping effort by the Trump administration to make good on campaign promises to carry out mass deportations and specifically scale back the use of the Temporary Protected Status.
“They knew what it was when they came here. It says right on it, temporary. It was temporary, and the temporary is over,” said Louis Murray, Chairman of Bostonians Against Sanctuary Cities. “They can take their savings and their new skills and help rebuild Haiti.”
Murray believes the intent of temporary protective status was manipulated.
He pointed out that it was never meant to be a long-term path to citizenship.
“As Americans, we should be very happy that the Trump administration is returning the intent of Congress to the Temporary Protected Status law,” he added.
Trump had previously attempted to end Temporary Protected Status for Haiti during his first term in the White House but was ultimately unsuccessful.
The current Trump administration also ended Temporary Protected Status for approximately half of Venezuela’s recipients last month.
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