“Haiti is grappling with a deteriorating political crisis, violence, and a staggering increase in human rights abuses.”- Federal Register Notice for the Designation of Haiti for Temporary Protected Status on August 3, 2021
The situation in Haiti is increasingly dire, with violence, instability, and famine forcibly displacing thousands from their homes. Redesignating and extending Haiti for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is critical to providing safety and stability for vital members of American communities. Just as importantly, creating a new system with additional safe and legal pathways for Haitian people to come to the U.S. would save countless lives and prevent further chaos and cruelty at our borders and beyond. The current TPS designation for Haiti expires on February 3, 2023. The Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security must decide if conditions in the country warrant an extension and redesignation by December 5, 2022.
In May 2021, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced a new designation of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haiti, citing “serious security concerns, social unrest, an increase in human rights abuses,” as well as other conditions that prevented the safe return of Haitian nationals. Since that time, the situation in Haiti has deteriorated so much that the country is now in the middle of multiple humanitarian crises, including catastrophic levels of hunger, a resurgent cholera epidemic, and the consequences of a blockade of the country’s capital city by increasingly powerful gangs. That blockade, which cut off access to fuel, clean water, and food for most of the country, forced hospitals and schools to shut down, and has ground the economy to a halt.