Biden Administration Extends Protected Status For Up To 309,000 Haitian Migrants

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 Haitian migrants from Haiti, a designation that will protect them from deportation in the United States.

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 and allow Haitians who have been in the United States since the beginning of June to participate in an application for their initial TPS.

The Biden administration’s extension period will officially begin August 4 and will continue through February 3, 2026.

As reported by the Federal Register, information about registering for the TPS will be provided on the website. More information can be found here.

Alejandro Mayorkas, a Homeland Security secretary, said in a statement that the extension comes “due to extraordinary and temporary conditions in Haiti. 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.” As previously reported by NPR, Haiti is currently experiencing unusually extremely high levels of gang violence and violent crimes.

In addition, the Biden administration’s TPS proclamation talks about the disruptive and lasting effects of Haiti’s environmental disaster, which includes a massive 7.0 earthquake in 2010 that devastated the country. They linked the country’s economic and political instability as products and reasons why people have had to flee the country and seek refuge.