Trump Expands Haitian Protections By Ending Them
The Trump administration declared a landmark humanitarian advance Wednesday after U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes, acting under a June 25 Supreme Court ruling, lifted her stay protecting roughly 350,000 Haitians from deportation. The decision ends Temporary Protected Status for Haitians and restores the government’s preferred interpretation of the program: “temporary” is binding, “status” is revocable and “protected” was included for decorative purposes. Officials said the cancellation would give affected families greater certainty by replacing years of legal residence and employment with the dependable knowledge that both may soon disappear.
“This is a tremendous humanitarian achievement, maybe the most humanitarian thing anybody has ever done, because nothing says protection like removing protection and sending people somewhere Americans are officially warned not to visit,” President Donald Trump said. Many recipients have lived and worked legally in the United States since Haiti’s devastating 2010 earthquake. They may now be returned to a country the State Department advises Americans not to enter because of kidnapping, crime and civil unrest, confirming the administration’s carefully calibrated safety standard: Haiti is too dangerous for an American tourist but entirely suitable for a Haitian parent carrying several suitcases and a deportation order.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem praised the move as a victory for workplace efficiency, noting that stripping work authorization from employed people will simplify the labor market by removing both the workers and their wages. Administration officials also emphasized that TPS was always temporary, unlike temporary tax cuts, temporary emergency powers and temporary campaign promises, which routinely mature into permanent fixtures. Reyes had blocked the termination in February, delaying the government’s effort to convert longtime neighbors, nurses, laborers, business owners and parents into enforcement statistics. With that obstacle removed, the administration can now demonstrate compassion in its purest form: withdrawing legal protection from hundreds of thousands of people and returning them to danger for their own safety. The United States has therefore made Haitians more secure by making their lives less secure.
* None of the quotes in this article were spoken by an actual person. More info.