Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced Wednesday that the Trump administration is revoking temporary protected status (TPS) for hundreds of thousands of Haitians beginning in February. The move came on the same day that two National Guard troops were shot in Washington, D.C., by an Afghan national here in the United States illegally.
Noem said that the protected status is no longer warranted:
"After consulting with interagency partners, Secretary [Kristi] Noem concluded that Haiti no longer meets the statutory requirements for TPS," DHS said in a news release. "This decision was based on a review conducted by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, input from relevant U.S. government agencies, and an analysis indicating that allowing Haitian nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is inconsistent with U.S. national interests."
DHS told Haitian migrants under TPS to prepare to depart if they have no other lawful basis for remaining in the United States.
They will be eligible for deportation in early February unless they have other legal means to remain here.
Trump has long argued that TPS status has been abused, and that people like former President Joe Biden purposely ignored the word “temporary” altogether and were letting people with that status stay here indefinitely.
As is the case with virtually everything Team Trump does, expect the lawsuits to start flying immediately and the activist judges to file temporary restraining orders. In fact, that’s already happened on this issue:
In July, a federal judge blocked Noem’s initial attempt to end Haiti TPS, ruling that the harms to Haitian residents — including the ability to work legally, provide for their families, and avoid returning to unsafe conditions — “far outweigh” any potential harm to the U.S. government. That ruling forced DHS to pause its efforts.
TPS for Haitians had been previously extended by former President Joe Biden in 2024, citing overlapping economic, security, political, and health crises. That extension lasts through Feb. 3.
The decision is already stirring up strong feelings on both sides of the aisle, with far leftists like Dem Rep. Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) accusing DHS of “operating with cruel disregard for human life.” Charlie Kirk show producer Blake Neff, meanwhile, blasted progressives for obsessing over flooding our borders with people from troubled countries:
Let the legal battles begin.