On February 24, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), published a notice in the Federal Register announcing the decision of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to partially vacate the actions taken by the former DHS Secretary during the Biden Administration, Alejandro Mayorkas, with respect to Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haiti. Noem partially vacated Mayorkas’s June 4, 2024 decision to extend Haiti’s designation for TPS, which extended the designation for the statutory maximum of 18 months, until February 3, 2026. DHS’s partial vacatur reduces the designation period from 18 months to 12 months. As a result, the Haiti TPS extension and new designation will expire on August 3, 2025, instead of February 3, 2026, and the first-time registration will remain in effect until August 3, 2025, instead of February 3, 2026.

Impact: TPS is a form of administrative immigration relief that is determined and implemented by the executive branch, although the authority for TPS is authorized by statute. Those who qualify for TPS are issued a registration document and are protected from deportation while a TPS designation is in place for their country of origin, and they are eligible to apply for an Employment Authorization Document (i.e. a work permit), allowing them to be employed lawfully and (in practice) have workplace rights, for the period during which the TPS designation remains active. The Congressional Research Service estimated that there were over 260,790 Haitian nationals with TPS as of the end of September 2024. Under the DHS decision of February 24, all 260,790, plus any who have been approved since then or will be approved, would be at risk of losing their protections from deportation and work authorization when the TPS designation period for Haiti ends.