The utter cruelty and inhumanity of Trump’s immigration policy towards Haitians

by Charlie Hinton

The United States government is threatening mass deportations of Haitians enrolled in two programs: Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and the Haitian Family Reunification Parole (HFRP) Program. Temporary Protected Status (TPS) allows foreign nationals from designated countries to live and work in the U.S. temporarily due to unsafe conditions in their home countries, like ongoing armed conflict or an environmental disaster, that would prevent them from returning home safely. 

In 2010, Janet Napolitano, the Secretary of Homeland Security, granted TPS to Haiti after the disastrous earthquake that killed more than 300,000 people and devastated Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, and the surrounding area. This was followed by Hurricane Matthew in 2016, and the 7.2 earthquake which devastated Haiti’s southern peninsula in 2021. However, TPS does not provide a pathway to permanent residency. As of Sept. 23, 2024, the U.S. provided TPS protections to about 863,880 individuals from 16 countries, including Haiti. Instead of residency, the TPS allows beneficiaries to live and, in some cases, work in the United States for a limited amount of time, usually 6, 12 or 18 months, after which it must be renewed, or it can be cancelled.

Trump’s attacks on Haitians follow in the footsteps of the Biden administration’s deportation of 25,000 Haitians, the most by any administration. It was during Biden’s presidency that border patrol agents in Texas were caught on camera whipping Haitians, in scenes reminiscent of slavery.  But under pressure from immigration activists, Biden renewed TPS for Haitian migrants for 18 months on July 1, 2024. On Feb. 20, 2025, Trump’s Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem partially vacated that notice and changed the extension period to one year, meaning that Haitian TPS holders who have been living, working, raising families with American-born children and paying taxes could be deported starting on Aug. 3, 2025. 

There are currently approximately 200,000 Haitian TPS holders at risk of deportation. Since many of their children were born in this country and have birthright citizenship, the party of “family values” is threatening the devastating separation of many of these families, as well as attempting to cancel the constitutional right to birthright citizenship granted to all people born in the United States.

In addition to TPS, a second program for refugee protection is called the Haitian Family Reunification Parole (HFRP) Program, which was established in 2014 to allow certain eligible U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents to apply for “parole” for their family members in Haiti. If granted parole, these family members could come to the United States and apply for discretionary work authorization while they wait to apply for Lawful Permanent Resident status. An estimated 211,040 Haitians are currently in the country under this program. On March 25, 2025, DHS Secretary Noem terminated this program for Haitians, Cubans, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, leaving hundreds of thousands of workers without the basic workplace protections that having a work permit provides — and they will become deportable if they have not already departed the United States “voluntarily.” 

The DHS Secretary has the authority to extend TPS after a review of country conditions and to maintain the Haitian Family Reunification Parole (HFRP) Program. The key here is the review of country conditions. As noted above, TPS was created to protect people from having to return to unsafe conditions in their home countries. 

Since the U.S.-orchestrated 2004 coup against the government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the most progressive in Haiti’s history, U.S.-backed right-wing governments and elites in Haiti have empowered armed paramilitaries to attack opposition neighborhoods and facilitate drug and arms trafficking, while wreaking havoc on civil society. These paramilitaries support themselves by looting, as they burn houses, gang rape women and terrorize whole communities, particularly in neighborhoods supportive of former President Aristide’s Lavalas Party. They have created what Haitians call a “hell on earth,” and they now dominate 85-90% of Port-au-Prince, armed with weapons that flow in illegally, mainly from South Florida. 

The death squads control all roads in and out of Port-au-Prince, extracting bribes to pass through and creating mass shortages of basic supplies. More than 5,000 people have been killed in the last year and hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes. The death squads have attacked schools and hospitals – any institution that benefits civil society. There is not one elected official in the country. There is no functioning government and there are no services. And this is the situation that Donald Trump and Kristi Noem want to force hundreds of thousands of people to return to. 

Elon Musk has said “The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy.” There is certainly no empathy for Haiti, and there are no words to describe the depth of the cruelty of this policy and this administration.

Currently, efforts to stop both deportation campaigns are in the courts, but the law gives the Secretary of Homeland Security authority to end both programs, so the deportations may well be upheld once they reach the appellate level. Haiti Action Committee demands the government stop these deportation threats. For justice to be done, Haitians must be able to return to a country freed from the violence imposed by decades of U.S.-backed anti-democratic rule.  Haitians who choose to remain in the United States should be granted the legal permanent residency they have earned.  Please stay tuned and support all efforts to block these heartless deportations. 

Charlie Hinton is a member of Haiti Action Committee and the Drop LWOP Coalition. He is the author of the play, “Solitary Man: A Visit to Pelican Bay State Prison” and a book of collected writings, “Life Wish.”

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