The Haitian community in the US is “shocked” and “speechless” after President Donald Trump’s administration announced that it was ending its humanitarian protection for Haiti.
The move, announced on Monday, gives nearly 60,000 Haitians, who hold Temporary Protected Status (TPS), 18 months to return to Haiti or find other ways to legalise their status in the US.
“I have 18 months to get my life together … to try to navigate my life as an undocumented immigrant,” Lys Isma, a 22-year-old Haitian living in Miami, Florida told Al Jazeera.
Isma is one of about 55,000 Haitians who has received TPS since Haiti was given the humanitarian protections after an earthquake in 2010 ravaged the country, killing 316,000 and displacing more than 1.5 million.
The Department of Homeland Security announced in a memo late on Monday that it was ending the humanitarian protection for the country after “a review of the conditions upon which the country’s original designation were based and whether those extraordinary, but temporary conditions prevented Haiti from adequately handling the return of their nationals”.
The memo said that Acting Secretary Elaine Duke “determined that those extraordinary, but temporary conditions caused by the 2010 earthquake no longer exist”.
The department added the protections for Haitians will end in July 2019.
Source: Al Jazeera
