HIAS stands in solidarity with Haitian and Haitian-American communities as the termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) becomes official, stripping legal status from approximately 350,000 Haitians who had been living and working lawfully in the United States.
TPS exists because Congress recognized that no one should be forced to return to a country made unlivable by armed conflict, natural disaster, or other extraordinary conditions. Haiti continues to face extraordinary violence, political instability, and a worsening humanitarian crisis. Yet now, following a lengthy legal battle, hundreds of thousands of Haitians who have built their lives in the United States are now at risk of deportation to conditions no one should be forced to endure.
Since taking office, the Trump administration has sought to formally end TPS for 13 countries, affecting more than one million people who had been living and working lawfully in the United States. Every one of these terminations has faced legal challenges, with plaintiffs arguing that the decisions were discriminatory, and that DHS failed to follow required procedures, including conducting accurate assessments of conditions in the affected countries. By the end of this year, only four TPS designations may remain active: El Salvador, Lebanon, Sudan, and Ukraine.
The need for TPS remains more critical than ever, with pathways to safety effectively shut off at every turn. Just this past month, a bipartisan bill to protect Afghan TPS, HR 9899, was introduced in the House of Representatives, and will likely be introduced this week in the Senate. A similar bill to protect Haitians, S4814, has been introduced in the Senate. HIAS supports Congressional efforts to protect TPS, and both serve as reminders that protecting people who need that critical support has been a bipartisan priority for decades.
“The United States is systematically dismantling the legal protections that have long reflected our country’s values,” said Beth Oppenheim, President & CEO of HIAS. “First refugee resettlement was effectively shut down. Then asylum protections were severely undermined. Now Temporary Protected Status is being stripped away from people who have lived here legally and who cannot safely return home. Abandoning people to danger is both cruel and a betrayal of our nation’s longstanding commitment to offer refuge to those who need it.”
HIAS stands with Haitian families today, and with every community whose access to humanitarian protection is being stripped away. We will continue to advocate for policies that uphold the rights, dignity, and safety of displaced people and preserve the protections that have saved countless lives.
For further information on TPS, see here.
For information on how to support immigrant communities see here.
For press inquiries, contact media@hias.org.