By Victoria Albert and Michelle Hackman
Hundreds of thousands of Haitians are set to lose their legal protections and work permits in February, after the Trump administration said it was taking a final step to end the program allowing them to remain in the country legally.
Wednesday's move, though expected for months, will have a major impact on one of the country's immigrant communities, as well as employers dependent on their labor.
The Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday that Haiti's designation under the program will expire on Feb. 3, in line with a federal judge's ruling this summer blocking the Trump administration from ending it before that date.
Temporary Protected Status, which was established by Congress in 1990, allows officials to grant temporary legal immigration status to people coming to the U.S. from disaster- or war-stricken countries. Immigrants can receive work permits and other documentation to live in the U.S. for up to 18 months through the program.
The department estimated that roughly 353,000 people have protected status under Haiti's designation. Only about 18,000 of them were also lawful permanent residents, the department said.
"If you are an alien who is currently a beneficiary of TPS for Haiti, you should prepare to depart if you have no other lawful basis for remaining in the United States," the department said.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said she had determined conditions on the island no longer merited the protected status determination. Even if they did, Noem said, she would still revoke the status because it was against the country's interests to allow Haitian nationals to reside temporarily in the U.S.
"While the current situation in Haiti is concerning, the United States must prioritize its national interests," Noem said.
The Trump administration has sought to revoke the temporary protected status designations for nationals of several countries, including Nicaragua and Venezuela, as part of its widespread crackdown on immigration. President Trump most recently said he would strip protections from a group of Somalis living in Minnesota.
The efforts have faced legal battles, though the Supreme Court last month granted an emergency request allowing the Trump administration to lift temporary legal protections for Venezuelans living in the U.S.
Roughly a dozen counties, including El Salvador, Lebanon and Syria, are under temporary protected status designations, according to DHS's website, though some are also slated to expire soon.
Haiti was first designated for temporary protected status in 2010, after an earthquake devastated the island. Those protections were extended several times since then, with President Joe Biden's Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas most recently extending the protections through February 2026 due to violence and instability in the conflict-torn nation.
DHS moved this February to end that designation early, in August 2025. But a federal judge prevented them from doing so, ruling in July that they cannot terminate the status before the February 2026 expiration.
Geoff Pipoly, an attorney who has fought the administration in court over Haiti's TPS designation, said Wednesday's move was one of many efforts from Trump to strip protections from Haitians at any cost.
"We will continue to fight in court to protect the rights of Haitian TPS holders by challenging this unlawful decision, and are hopeful that the courts will recognize that today's decision is unlawful, as previous courts have done," Pipoly said.
Guerline Jozef, co-founder of the Haitian Bridge Alliance -- another group that has fought for Haiti's TPS status -- was more blunt: "If Haiti doesn't warrant TPS, which country does?"
Write to Victoria Albert at victoria.albert@wsj.com and Michelle Hackman at michelle.hackman@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 26, 2025 16:28 ET (21:28 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Comments