Biden is taking steps to protect hundreds of thousands of Haitians from deportation

The Biden administration will protect more than 300,000 Haitians from deportation and allow them to work in the country, U.S. officials announced Friday. This is the latest measure to protect immigrants from returning to countries where conditions are dire.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, the administration’s move would make Haitians who arrived after November 2022 and before early June eligible for temporary protected status. It comes amid a wave of recent immigration actions by President Biden, including efforts to help undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens more easily obtain U.S. citizenship and block asylum claims at the southern border.

Biden has moved to a more restrictive stance at the southern border in what some see as an effort to bolster his re-election chances. He has faced criticism for his policies from opposing sides — from the left, including immigration activists who condemn his crackdown on asylum, and the right, including former President Donald J. Trump, who see him as too lenient toward those who enter the country illegally.

The Biden administration has used Temporary Protected Status in recent years to protect hundreds of thousands of migrants, including from countries such as Venezuela, Ukraine, Afghanistan and Haiti.

The protection measures for Haiti came after the country was rocked by violence and unrest, including the assassination of the country’s president, Jovenel Moïse, in 2021. Gangs have taken control of much of the country.

“Several regions in Haiti continue to experience violence and insecurity, and many regions have limited access to safety, health care, food and water,” DHS’s announcement said Friday.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas granted Haiti Temporary Protected Status in 2021 and extended that status at the end of 2022. The government also extended benefits to people who already had them.

The measure “will provide life-saving protection to hundreds of thousands of Haitians and their families,” said Guerline Jozef, executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, an advocacy group.

Despite the government protecting some Haitians from deportation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have continued to deport people to the country in recent months.

Earlier this year, ICE officials deported dozens of Haitians to a location a few hours north of the nation’s capital. The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement at the time that the Haitians had legal avenues to enter the United States.

“We continue to encourage Haitians to use the safe, orderly pathways available to them, including the humanitarian parole process for Haitian nationals,” the statement said.

Since July 2023, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has evacuated families of embassy staff from the country and warned American visitors not to visit the country, saying it is not safe for Americans due to “kidnapping, crime, civil unrest and poor health care infrastructure.”

In March, the United Nations reported that gang violence had claimed the lives of more than 1,500 Haitians this year.

Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry resigned at the end of April after staying abroad under pressure from local gangs.

“We have served the nation in difficult times,” Mr. Henry wrote in his resignation letter. “I sympathize with the losses and suffering suffered by our compatriots during this period.”

Democratic lawmakers had called out the Biden administration in a letter in March to extend protection and halt deportations to the country.

“The escalation of the grave danger Haitians face in their homeland fully satisfies the demands for a redesignation of TPS and a pause on all deportation flights to Haiti,” said the letter, signed by 67 Democratic and independent lawmakers. “Both steps are necessary to ensure that the United States does not return Haitian nationals to a government that fails to protect its citizens — and often subjects them to repression and violence — and to gangs that brutally victimize residents and operate without restraint.”