Immigration Lawyer Blog
On October 4, 2016, Hurricane Mathews, a category 4 hurricane, devastated southern Haiti. To date, close to 1,000 Haitians have been confirmed dead. In addition, much of the crops and buildings in the southern part of the country have been destroyed. Based on the large scale humanitarian crisis, on October 12, 2016, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, announced that the United States would temporarily suspend all deportations to Haiti.
On January 10, 2010, Haiti was struck by a devastating 7.0 earthquake which killed at least 160,000 people and displaced another 1.5 million people. In the aftermath of the earthquake, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) took steps to help Haitians in the United States. On January 13, 2010, DHS announced that it would be suspending deportations to Haiti. In addition, on January 15, 2010, DHS announced the designation of Temporary Protected Status (“TPS”) for Haitians who were in the United States as of January 12, 2010. TPS allowed Haitians who qualified to remain and work in the United States for a temporary amount of time, until conditions in Haiti improved.
In the years following the earthquake, DHS continued to extend TPS for Haitians, and continued to suspend deportations to Haiti for Haitians who had not been convicted of a serious crime and did not pose a national security threat. However, on September 22, 2016, DHS Secretary Johnson announced that deportations to Haiti would immediately resume. Secretary Johnson made clear that Haitians in the United States on TPS may remain in the United States until their current TPS status expires July 22, 2017.