NORTH MIAMI, Fla. – Fear and uncertainty are spreading among many Haitians in South Florida as the Trump Administration officially ends their Temporary Protected Status effective Sept. 2.
One TPS recipient, who asked to remain anonymous, expressed their distress.
“This is so sad and painful,” she said. “I have no words. Only one word, we don’t have any country to return to.”
Five hundred thousand Haitians in the U.S. under TPS are now stripped of their legal status and left effectively undocumented.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that the “decision restores integrity in our immigration system and ensures that Temporary Protective Status is actually temporary.”
“The environmental situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home,” officials with the agency concluded.
Gepsie Metellus, the executive director of Sant La Haitian Neighborhood Center in North Miami, called that “a laughable statement if it wasn’t so serious.”
“You’ve got gang control of over 90% of the country,” Metellus said.
Activists opposing the Trump Administration’s move to end TPS for Haitians said the country is still in a state of dangerous chaos.
“You have a pending hunger crisis, you have rape and theft and violence,” Metellus said.
The U.S. State Department currently has a Level 4 advisory, the highest against U.S. citizens traveling to Haiti, citing kidnapping, civil unrest and limited health care.
Metellus asked, “If the State Department would urge American citizens to pack their bags and leave Haiti ASAP because of the same conditions I just described, why on earth would we want to repatriate people under these circumstances right now?”
A TPS recipient told Local 10 News that if she could go back to Haiti, if it was safe enough to do so, she would do it in a heartbeat. But she hasn’t, because it is so unsafe.