Despite President Donald Trump’s aggressive push to end temporary protections for migrants amid his nationwide crackdown on immigration, Haitian nationals are continuing to keep their violence-plagued homeland afloat by sending billions of dollars in remittances, according to the International Monetary Fund.

The IMF says Haiti’s economy has contracted for a seventh consecutive year, and inflation remains high at around 32%.

But amid the worsening economic conditions, driven by armed violence along with drops in exports and severe cuts in U.S. foreign aid, families in Haiti are continuing to receive increased financial support from loved ones abroad, particularly migrants living in the United States.

“These inflows have strengthened the current account balance, which is projected to record a moderate surplus” this budget year, the IMF said, noting the stability of Haiti’s nominal exchange rate and its $3.1 billion-plus in financial reserves.

The IMF did not provide remittance inflows for this year. But last year, Haitians abroad, the majority of whom live in the United States, transferred more than $4 billion home through formal channels, according to the country’s central bank. The amount represented a 9.5% increase over the previous year, central bank governor Ronald Gabriel said at the time.

He and others noted that in a country where more than 70% of the population live off remittances from abroad, the money transfers were a lifeline that enabled the population to pay for healthcare and education costs, and even eat.

Of the cash that poured into Haiti last year, at least $2.8 billion originated from the United States, according to an analysis by Manual Orozco, director of the program on migration and remittances at the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based think tank. Between January and June of this year, the country has already received $2.2 billion, of which $1.8 billion was transferred from the U.S., he said.

“In the first six months of 2024, U.S. outbound was $1.2 billion. That’s a 50% increase for 2025,” he said. “The total volume is 20% higher than 2024.”

Orozco said he’s expecting the total amount of remittances to Haiti to grow this year more than 15%. He credits the increase not to an increase in Haitians who temporarily migrated to the U.S. — more than 200,000 came under a Biden-era humanitarian parole program that has since been shut down by the Trump administration — but to the fact Haitians are sending more money home.

The increases, Orozco believes, are the result of the ongoing immigration threat Haitians, like other migrants in the U.S., are facing amid the stepped up arrests and immigration enforcements by the Department of Homeland Security.

In October of last year Haitians sent an average of $140. This past August the amount rose to $160. The increases in money transfers are similar to what Orozco says he’s observing among other migrants from Latin American and the Caribbean. Amid the rise in deportations and end of protections, migrants are sending “more than the usual as a precautionary risk mitigation matter in case they were deported,” the analyst said.

“For 2026, I see there will be a decline due to declining Haitian migration to the U.S., a slight return of Haitians [home] among other trends,” Orozco said. “Possibly at least 50,000 less transactions per month out of one million from the U.S.”

In recent months, the Trump administration has revoked the humanitarian parole status of hundreds of thousands of nationals of Haiti, along with those of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela who entered the U.S. under humanitarian parole. The administration also announced the end of long-running deportation protections for other Haitians, some of whom have been living in the U.S. for decades.

Though lawyers and advocates are challenging the administration’s assertions that Haiti is safe enough for Haitians to return, many are bracing themselves for what could be stepped up enforcement as of Feb. 3, 2026, when Haiti’s TPS designation is supposed to end.

Like Orozco’s predictions that Haitians are sending larger amounts of money home due to the uncertainty around immigration, IMF staff also made a similar prediction, noting in their report that the increased in remittances could possibly be in anticipation of changes in international migration policies.

In their report, they also noted that Haiti’s economic outlook continues to be threatened by intensified gang-related disruptions, escalating violence and possible social unrest.

“In addition, potential shifts in foreign immigration and trade policies could sharply reduce exports and remittance inflows,” the IMF said. “These developments could compound the adverse impact of the security crisis on domestic production, worsen the humanitarian and economic crisis, and increase fiscal pressures.”

The IMF’s analysis on Haiti came after its staff conducted a virtual meeting between Sept. 30 and Wednesday to assess Haiti’s progress under an IMF staff-monitored program.

Last week, Haitian officials finally passed a new budget after missing their deadline to have it ready for Oct. 1, the start of the country’s budget year. The budget approval came amid more bad news: a worsening of the humanitarian crisis. U.N. aid agencies have for weeks been sounding the alarm over their inability to get access to many of the nearly six million Haitians who are in need of assistance due to gangs’ control of key roads.

On Monday, the World Food program warned that 51% of Haiti’s population is currently experiencing acute levels of hunger, a 3% increase from last year. Malnutrition rates of children under age 5 have also doubled in two years, from 7% to 14%, with some areas recording even higher rates, the program said.

Women, children and displaced families are the hardest hit by the prolonged crisis, the U.N. food agency warned.

“The crisis in Haiti is acutely underfunded,” the office of U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said during a press conference in New York, adding that the World Food Program requires $139 million for the next 12 months to reach the country’s most vulnerable families.

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