The Trump administration announced that it has terminated Temporary Protected Status for Haitian nationals living in the United States, even as their country is embroiled in violence and political and economic instability.
The nation’s leading organization for Haitian rights rebuked the administration’s revocation of TPS for Haitians—particularly on the eve of Thanksgiving.
“When the U.S. government knowingly chooses to send people back to a nation that they themselves have put on a category 4 do not travel due to the continued political crisis, that is state-sponsored cruelty on the eve of Thanksgiving,” said Guerline Jozef, executive director of Haitian Bridge Alliance, a grassroots immigration rights advocacy group.
The advocate warned, “This decision will also impact millions of Haitians back in Haiti who depend on the remittances sent by their relatives.”
On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced that TPS status for Haitians will end on Feb. 3, 2026. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem determined that Haiti “no longer meets the statutory requirements for TPS.”
“This decision was based on a review conducted by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, input from relevant U.S. government agencies, and an analysis indicating that allowing Haitian nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is inconsistent with U.S. national interests,” the department said in a memo.
The Trump administration urged Haitians currently living in the U.S. under TPS status, which affects 353,000 Haitians, according to Reuters, to voluntarily “report” their departure on the CBP Home mobile application. The administration is also offering those who leave on their own a complimentary plane ticket, a $1,000 “exit bonus,” and “potential future opportunities for legal immigration to the United States.”
This is the second attempt by the Trump administration to end Temporary Protected Status for Haitians in the U.S. Secretary Noem had previously moved to end the immigration status before its expiration. A federal judge blocked the move in July.
Jozef of Haitian Bridge Alliance slammed the Trump administration, saying, “ending TPS for Haiti is not a policy decision — it is an act of violence against immigrant families and their children who have called the U.S home for over a decade.”
More than 1.4 million Haitians have been displaced by violence and instability, according to the International Organization for Migration. UNICEF estimated that over 6 million people – more than half the population, including 3.3 million children – need humanitarian assistance.
“We reject the idea that our communities must constantly justify their right to live, to work, to be safe. TPS is the bare minimum of protection, and even that is being stripped away,” said Jozef. “This is why we organize, resist, and demand a world where migration is not weaponized against the most vulnerable.”
