by Mary Spiller
July 1, 2024
The Biden Administration cited Haiti’s continuous political and economic unrest as the reason for the extension.
On June 28, the Biden administration announced an 18-month extension of the temporary protection status for over 300,000 unauthorized migrants from Haiti living in the United States. The redesignation will protect them from deportation.
According to NPR, a temporary protected status, or a TPS, is not an effective permanent legal status for immigrants, however, it “protects against deportation, allows migrants to get a work permit, and sometimes travel authorization.”
The TPS extension will assist immigrant Haitians who are already legally under the temporary protected status. The redesignation status will also allow Haitians who have been in the United States since the beginning of June to participate in an application for their first initial TPS.
The Biden administration’s extension period will officially begin on August 4 and will continue through Feb 3, 2026.
As reported by the Federal Register, information about registering for the TPS will be provided on the website.
Alejandro Mayorkas, a Homeland Security secretary, said in a statement that the extension comes “due to extraordinary and temporary conditions in Haiti.”
Mayorkas continued, “We are providing this humanitarian relief to Haitians already present in the United States given the conditions that existed in their home country as of June 3, 2024.”
The main reason for the TPS extension published is because of Haiti’s “simultaneous economic, security, political, and health crises.”
The Biden administration has decided to push forward with the extension after deciding that the program is extremely necessary for safety reasons.
As previously reported by NPR, Haiti is currently experiencing unusually extremely high levels of gang violence and violent crimes.
Alongside the crime levels, the Biden Administration’s TPS proclamation talks about the disruptive and lasting effects of Haiti’s environmental disaster. They linked the country’s economic and political instability as products and reasons why people have had to flee the country and seek refuge.
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