By Ted Hesson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem will end deportation protections for half a million Haitians, the latest move by the Trump administration to strip migrants of legal status as it ramps up deportations.
Noem, who shortened the duration of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for some 521,000 Haitians earlier this year, will terminate the status on September 2, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said.
President Donald Trump, a Republican, has sought to crack down on both legal and illegal immigration during the first four months of his presidency. Noem, who shares Trump’s hardline stance, moved in February to end TPS for some 350,000 Venezuelans, as well as thousands of people from Afghanistan and Cameroon.
The Supreme Court ruled on May 19 that the Trump administration could proceed with ending TPS for those Venezuelans, signaling that other terminations also may be permitted to move forward.
The court in a separate order on May 30 said that the administration could immediately revoke a separate status known as parole for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans.
TPS – a humanitarian program created by the U.S. Congress in 1990 – is available to people whose home country has experienced a natural disaster, armed conflict or other extraordinary event. Two months before the status expires, the homeland security secretary must determine whether to renew it, expand it to include new arrivals from the country, or terminate it.
Trump sought to wipe out most TPS enrolment during his first term but was stymied by federal courts.
In a statement, a DHS spokesperson said conditions in Haiti would now allow people to return but did not explain what exactly had changed to lessen the risk.
“The environmental situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home,” the spokesperson said.
Advocates argue that the conditions in Haiti warrant extending the relief. The country has not held elections since 2016 and capital city Port-au-Prince is almost entirely controlled by armed gangs.
Despite the dire conditions, the Trump administration has frozen some funding earlier pledged to support a U.N.-backed mission in Haiti.
(Reporting by Ted Hesson; Additional reporting by Costas Pitas; Editing by Ryan Patrick Jones, William Maclean)
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