The precariousness of Venezuela is overshadowing another failed state in another troubled Caribbean country: Haiti, lacking oil, is the poorest nation in the hemisphere and probably the most dangerous. That’s why the State Department issued a “Do Not Travel” order.
Simultaneously, however, the Trump administration insists it’s safe enough to force around 350,000 Haitians legally living and working in the United States to return home by next month.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued formal notice that Haitians will be stripped of their temporary protected status (TPS) on Feb. 3. “Certain conditions in Haiti remain concerning,” the agency said. “Armed groups operate with impunity, enabled by a weak or effectively absent central government.”
That’s an understatement. More than 1.4 million people in Haiti, or 12 percent of the population, are displaced. A new U.S.-proposed “Gang Suppression Force” is floundering due to few countries committing the needed funds or manpower.
Yet the administration is ordering Haitians to self-deport. They have been offered a free one-way plane ticket and a $1,000 check if they agree to leave before the February deadline.
The Department of Homeland Security tries to explain this contradiction by saying, because there’s no functioning government, Haiti has no central authority to help the U.S. vet migrants. That’s a loophole big enough to drive an oil tanker through. The agency also claims that, while the capital isn’t safe, “parts” of the country are suitable for return. They don’t bother to identify any such enclaves. And they note that a Haitian gang member who had previously been convicted of drug and weapons crimes was arrested last year in the U.S.
The truth is that many Haitian immigrants in the U.S. are employed and filling job vacancies in crucial areas. Haitian TPS recipients contributean estimated $5.8 billion to the U.S. economy annually and pay $1.5 billion in taxes. They helped revitalized midsize manufacturing plants in Springfield, Ohio. That city’s name might ring a bell from the 2024 campaign, when Trump dubiously claimed Haitian migrants were eating dogs and cats. Elsewhere, including South Florida, Haitians take hard-to-fill jobs in health and home care, stoking fears of labor shortageswhen they depart.
The Haitians are not the only group about to lose their legal status. The largest group of TPS recipients are Venezuelans, numbering around 600,000, and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem announced last year that the country would no longer be included in the program. Some, including Miami’s mayor, asked her to reconsider over the weekend after President Donald Trump ousted President Nicolás Maduro.
On “Fox News Sunday,” Noem rejectedthese pleas. “Venezuela today is more free than it was yesterday,” she said. “Every individual that was under TPS has the opportunity to apply for refugee status.”
Other TPS recipients losing their legal status are from Afghanistan, Myanmar, Cameroon, Nepal, Nicaragua, Syria and South Sudan. The program began in 1990 as a way to offer refuge — and the ability to work — for migrants from countries considered too dangerous to return to because of war, violence or natural disasters.
President Joe Biden oversaw an excessive expansion of TPS, growing the program from 400,000 to 1.3 million from 17 countries. That turned it into another backdoor immigration system that the Trump team felt needed to be reined in. Indeed, a program that Congress intended to be “temporary,” for six to 18 months, has in some cases become semipermanent, with routine extensions.
TPS, like all immigration rules, should be regularly reviewed and improved to prevent abuse. One reasonable proposal is to designate certain parts of a country, rather than all of it, as too dangerous to return. At the same time, any determination about rescinding protections already issued ought be based upon facts on the ground. It’s clearly not safe right now for the Haitians to go back.
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