Update: On July 1, 2025, USCIS issued a notice announcing that the designation of Haiti for Temporary Protected Status was being terminated. The notice states that the TPS designation of Haiti was set to expire on August 3, 2025 and the termination is now effective September 2, 2025. After that date, nationals of Haiti who are currently legally living in the U.S. will no longer have TPS protection. On the same day as USCIS’s announcement to terminate TPS, in a lawsuit against the Trump administration, a federal district judge in New York ordered a pause on the expiration of TPS for Haiti on the grounds that DHS that the status can’t be terminated until the most recent extension expires.
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 to terminate this status for Haitians, all 260,790 people, plus any who have been approved since September 2024, would lose their work authorization and be at risk of detention and deportation after September 2, 2025.