Trump Rolls Back Protections for Haitian Migrants

The Trump administration is moving to terminate a set of protections known as Temporary Protected Status for Haitian immigrants who came to the U.S. while former President Joe Biden was in office, according to an internal memo reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

{snip}

The move means that up to 500,000 Haitians—who either crossed into the U.S. illegally, or came through a Biden-era legal program called humanitarian parole—will lose their deportation protections and work permits in August. After that, they could be targeted for deportation.

Former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas had extended TPS protections for Haitians through February 2026. Trump’s move, according to that memo, would terminate those protections six months early.

{snip} TPS is meant to be used in situations where a population’s home country is in such crisis, because of war or other instability, that it would be dangerous to deport people there.

{snip}

President Trump foreshadowed the decision before taking office, when he promised to target the Haitian population living in Springfield, Ohio, after repeating baseless claims that they had been stealing and eating neighbors’ pets. Republican Gov. Mike DeWine has said that roughly 15,000 Haitians immigrated to Springfield over the past several years, the Journal previously reported.

{snip}