The Trump administration is using Haiti’s “widespread” gang violence, along with the State Department’s recent decision to designate several of the country’s most powerful armed groups as “foreign terrorists,” to justify ending temporary deportation protections for hundreds of thousands of Haitians living and working in the United States.

On Friday, a Homeland Security spokesperson justified the decision to end temporary protected status by saying “the environmental situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home.”

While the Biden administration had used Haiti’s unabated gang violence as reason to protect Haitians in the United States from deportation by redesignating and extending temporary protected status, the Trump administration is now doing the contrary. In Federal Register documents to be published Tuesday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem highlights Haiti’s “widespread gang violence,” lawlessness and lack of a functioning government in the agency’s argument to end TPS for Haitians.

In the official determination letter ending TPS, the Trump administration does not assess whether the country is safe enough for Haitians to return. Instead, DHS cites several reports on the deteriorating conditions in Haiti describing the reality Haitians face, living in an overcrowded capital largely controlled under gang control.

TPS is a designation given to countries with conditions so dangerous that their nationals in the U.S. cannot return. The Obama administration granted work permits and deportation protections under TPS for Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake near Port-au-Prince that killed over 300,000 people. The Biden administration then expanded the designation following the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021 and again amid deteriorating conditions in February 2023 and July 2024.

DHS determined that it is not in U.S. interests to maintain the designation because of the “serious threat” Haitians gangs pose, coupled with the Haitian government’s inability to provide reliable information about their nationals.

“Gang violence in Haiti persists as armed groups operate with impunity, enabled by a weak or effectively absent central government,” DHS said, citing a Congressional Research Service report as well as Amnesty International on how gangs are “striking the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area and its surroundings with terror and violence, including rape and other forms of sexual violence.”

The Trump administration’s rationale is a significant departure from previous U.S. policies regarding Haiti. In the past, U.S. national interests were used to justify both American involvement in Haiti’s internal political affairs and in its designation of TPS, as U.S. officials cited mounting fears of Haitians taking to the sea in rickety, unsafe boats to try to reach Florida.

The agency notes that on May 2, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the State Department’s designation of the gangs Viv Ansanm and Gran Grif as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists.

“In his announcement, the secretary noted ‘Haitian gangs, including the Viv Ansanm coalition and Gran Grif, are the primary source of instability and violence in Haiti,” DHS said. “They are a direct threat to U.S. national security interests in our region.... Their ultimate goal is creating a gang-controlled state where illicit trafficking and other criminal activities operate freely and terrorize Haitian citizens.”

Putting the blame on Haiti's transitional government, DHS said the breakdown in governance that has allowed widespread gang violence in Haiti to be sustained “directly impacts U.S. national security interests, particularly in the context of uncontrolled migration.”

While previous government estimates have said that 521,000 Haitians were benefiting from immigration protections, the letter said DHS estimates there are approximately 348,187 nationals of Haiti or people with no nationality who last habitually resided in Haiti and hold TPS under Haiti’s designation.

Immigration advocates decrying the TPS decision say a wave of migration to Florida remains a high probability as the situation increasingly becomes unbearable for Haitians and as armed gangs continue to spread to other regions. They note that Haitians residing in the U.S. have been a lifeline for those still inside the country, contributing over $3 billion annually in remittances to the country.

“We believe that ending TPS for Haitians is not in the U.S. national interest,” the Miami-based Haitian-American Foundation for Democracy, an advocacy group made up of Americans of Haitian descent, said. “We urge the administration to reconsider its decision and to continue providing safe haven while increasing its support of Haitian and international efforts to vanquish the criminal gangs that are transforming Haiti into a wasteland.”

Immigration experts say the administration’s reliance on “national interests” makes little sense in the context of Haiti, and argue against the notion that granting temporary protections against deportation encourages illegal migration.

“The current situation in Haiti is concerning,” DHS said “However, the United States must prioritize its national interests, which includes assessing foreign policy, public safety, national security, migration factors, immigration policy, and economic considerations. In considering these factors individually and cumulatively, the Secretary has determined that permitting Haitian nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is contrary to the U.S. national interest.”

_____

(Miami Herald staff writer Syra Ortiz Blanes contributed to this story.)

_____

©2025 Miami Herald. Visit miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.