The Biden administration will extend Temporary Protective Status — or TPS — to Haitians who have recently arrived in the U.S. The status is given to citizens of about a dozen countries determined to be unsafe for return. It provides temporary protection from deportation and a work permit.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced Haiti would be re-added to the list. Haitians present in the U.S. on or before Nov. 6 of this year are eligible for the status.
Mayorkas said political instability, environmental disaster and gang violence in Haiti had spurred the latest re-designation.
But it’s a move rights advocates have long called for, as Haiti deals with the falloutof a major earthquake and presidential assassination in 2021.
Despite those calls, thousands of Haitians have already been sent back to their country under the pandemic-era protocol Title 42.
TPS was last extended for Haiti in August 2021, and Haitians were required to have been in the U.S. since June of that year to qualify.
