DHS Ends TPS for Upward of 500,000 Haitians, Agency Sows Confusion Over Reasons
DHS said publicly that conditions in Haiti are safe enough to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians, then said the opposite in the Federal Register. State Dept. says Haiti is dangerous.
While many in the immigration community are reeling over the Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling that keeps the door open to ending birthright citizenship, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced that Temporary Protected Status for Haitians will terminate in just over two months on September 2.
Update 07/01/2025: The original post said that ending TPS for Haitians would directly affect 348,187 people. That number came from the announcement in the Federal Register. However, other news outlets and organizations have cited numbers ranging from 430,00 (FWD.us) to 520,000 (Axios and other news outlets). One reason for this could be that the larger total includes 199,445 Haitians whose status was extended and approximately 321,349 who were newly eligible (see the February vacatur notice.) It’s unclear how the number in the F.R. was produced and whether discrepancies are due to different approaches to counting or other less admirable reasons. Thanks to an anonymous expert subscriber for flagging this numerical issue for me. All readers are welcome to reach to me anytime to provide additional context and insight, or to correct my own mistakes or misinterpretations that make it to print.
Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is a form of humanitarian protection that allows citizens of a designated country to lawfully remain and work in the United States due to political, social, or environmental instability in the named country. The following countries are currently designated for TPS: Afghanistan, Burma (Myanmar), Cameroon, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Haiti, Honduras, Lebanon, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, Venezuela, and Yemen.
In 2021, I wrote a post about the Biden administration’s decision to designate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians, offering context on the political and economic conditions in Haiti that shaped the policy.
TPS has been extended several times since then, but earlier this year, Secretary Noem reduced the length of TPS redesignation from 18 months to 12 months, and allowed new Haitian TPS applicants only through August 3. With the September 2 termination date looming, it’s unlikely that new applications would be approved in time to even take advantage of any benefits of TPS.
The DHS press release from earlier today—thanks to
for sharing online—cites an anonymous spokesperson who says: “The environmental situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home.” The announcement reiterates the finding that Haiti is “safe” and goes on to encourage Haitians to use the CBP Home app (previously known as CBP One) to log their departure:“The Secretary determined that, overall, country conditions have improved to the point where Haitians can return home in safety. She further determined that permitting Haitian nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is contrary to the national interest of the United States. Haitian nationals returning home are encouraged to use the U.S. Customs and Border Protection CBP Home app to report their departure from the United States.”
Is Haiti safe?
The Department of State doesn’t think so. In a travel warning issued in September of last year and that remains in effect to this day, the State Department lists Haiti as the most serious “Level 4” travel advisory, which the agency defines as “do not travel.”
I’ll quote the opening paragraphs at length so you can read the agency’s own assessment:
Updated to reflect additional information on crime.
Do not travel to Haiti due to kidnapping, crime, civil unrest, and limited health care.
Country Summary: Since March 2024, Haiti has been under a State of Emergency. Crimes involving firearms are common in Haiti. They include robbery, carjackings, sexual assault, and kidnappings for ransom. Kidnapping is widespread, and U.S. citizens have been victims and have been hurt or killed. Kidnappers may plan carefully or target victims at random, unplanned times. Kidnappers will even target and attack convoys. Kidnapping cases often involve ransom requests. Victims’ families have paid thousands of dollars to rescue their family members.
Protests, demonstrations, and roadblocks are common and unpredictable. They often damage or destroy infrastructure and can become violent. Mob killings and assaults by the public have increased, including targeting those suspected of committing crimes.
I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sound safe to me.
Human Rights Watch doesn’t think so, either. Their latest report provides evidence for their claim that “Haiti’s multidimensional crisis reached catastrophic levels in 2024.” They go on to cite widespread dangers:
Killings and kidnappings by criminal groups increased, with a weak state response and an ineffectual justice system. Sexual violence became widespread, with survivors having minimal access to health services and a near-absence of justice. Rising hunger and extreme poverty have forced children to join criminal groups, where they face abuse, including sexual exploitation.
Freedom House’s report on Haiti, updated for 2025, also cites worsening conditions and ongoing political instability. In fact, Freedom House’s freedom score dropped from 30/100 in 2024 to 24/100 in 2025. Freedom House says that Haiti is “not free.”
To bring us further up to date, in February the International Crisis Group reported that “Efforts by Haitian politicians and their foreign partners to quell surging gang violence have yet to bear fruit.“ And as recently as the end of April, War on the Rocks reported that “Today, Haiti is grappling with extraordinary violence as gangs have tightened their stranglehold over large portions of the country.”
But to repeat: DHS Secretary Noem said today that “country conditions have improved to the point where Haitians can return home in safety.” If that’s true, the public deserves to see evidence for her claims.
Update
After I published this, Aaron Reichlin-Melnick pointed out that unlike the press announcement, the official announcement in the Federal Register does not justify TPS termination for Haiti based on “safe conditions” but solely on the claim that it is “no longer in the national interest of the United States.”
As Aaron pointed out, here is the summary of the official justification:
Now, you might think that the Noem would just ignore all of the evidence for why Haiti is an unsafe country—but this would be wrong. In fact, Noem leans into the the fact that Haiti is an unsafe country. Noem says, “The current situation in Haiti is concerning” and she says, “Gang violence in Haiti persists as armed groups operate with impunity, enabled by a weak or effectively absent central government”—clear admissions of the situation in Haiti.
And yet she uses this evidence to do the opposite of common sense: she claims that because of political instability, Haitians shouldn’t be allowed into the United States or be allowed to stay. As Aaron points out, the DHS press release directly contradicts the official announcement in the Federal Register.
Follow the logic here: TPS is intended to provide humanitarian protection for people facing violence and political instability at home. And yet Noem exploits the precise justification for TPS, turns it against migrants who are already in the United States, and claims that the very instability they face are a reason we should not provide humanitarian protection.
It’s an absurd argument that offends the heart and the mind.
And let’s remind ourselves that this administration recruited white South Africans to come through the refugee program. The same logic applied to Haitians could be applied to white South Africans—but it didn’t. White South Africans were welcomed as victims, while Haitians are treated as terrorists and public safety threats.
Read the Federal Register statement for yourself below (link here).
I’m saving a screenshot of the original press release here in case they change it.
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“Country conditions have improved to the point where Haitians can return home in safety.”
But they are NOT safe conditions according to the State Dept. which puts Haiti at a Level 4. This could only mean one thing: DHS Secretary Noem considers Haitians' safety to be worth less than American's because it's okay if they return home under those unsafe conditions. It's okay if they have to deal with "Killings and kidnappings by criminal groups" because they're... Haitian.
This is blatant racism. I hope the lawsuits are being filed now to stop this discriminatory ruling.