Biden administration gives temporary protected status to 309,000 more Haitian migrants

The move will shield an additional 309,000 Haitians living in the U.S. from deportation back to Haiti, where widespread gang violence continues.

June 28, 2024, 1:00 PM EDT

By Julia Ainsley

The Biden administration on Friday announced new temporary protected status forHaitians who arrived in the U.S. on or before June 3, 2024, to shield even those who entered the country illegally from being deportedback to Haiti, which remains in the grip of gang violence.

“We are providing this humanitarian relief to Haitians already present in the United States given the conditions that existed in their home country as of June 3, 2024,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said. “In doing so, we are realizing the core objective of the TPS law and our obligation to fulfill it.”

Immigration advocates had been calling on the Biden administration to designate recently arrived Haitians for temporary protected status since violence broke out there earlier this year and Haiti’s president fled the country and resigned.

This spring, as Haitians fled the violence, the administration continued to deport migrants interdicted at sea and said it had no plans to designate temporary protected status for additional Haitians.

The U.S. previously designated temporary protected status for Haitians who arrived in the U.S. before the 2010 earthquake and renewed the status of that group as recently as 2022. Friday’s announcement would shield an additional 309,000 Haitians living in the U.S. from deportation, according to DHS. Immigration advocates estimate thatthis would bring the total of Haitians in the U.S. with protected status to roughly 500,000.

(That doesn’t count the got a ways)

https://www.nbcnews.com/investigations/biden-admin-gives-protected-status-309000-haitians-rcna159438