Three days after the US Embassy in Haiti warned US citizens, “Do not travel to Haiti” and “Depart Haiti as soon as possible,” Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem announced the termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for people from that country.

TPS was created by Congress in 1990 under the Immigration and Nationality Act. It provides temporary immigration status to people fleeing war, natural disasters or other calamities that prevent their safe return. On January 21, following the devastating 7.0 magnitutde earthquake on January 12, 2010, which killed over 100,000 people and displaced over 1.5 million more, the DHS designated Haiti for TPS status.

In the over 15 years since the earthquake, Democrats have done virtually nothing to protect Haitians under TPS, such as advancing legislation that would provide citizenship to long-term TPS and green card holders. Instead, TPS status has been extended multiple times throughout the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations as conditions worsened in Haiti, especially following the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021.

The termination is effective Tuesday, September 2, 2025, leaving over half a million Haitians, some who have been in the US for over 15 years, barely 10 weeks to find another legal pathway to remain in the US or face detention and deportation to a country the US State Department warned not to travel to in March 2025. In making this announcement, the State Department said:

Local police and other first responders often lack the resources to respond to emergencies or serious crime. Shortages of gasoline, electricity, medicine, and medical supplies are common throughout the country. Public and private medical clinics and hospitals often lack trained staff and basic resources. In addition, they require prepayment for services in cash.

The travel advisory went on to note that US governmental personnel “are subjected to a nightly curfew and are prohibited from walking in Port-au-Prince.” They are also prohibited from “using any kind of public transportation,” “visiting banks and using ATMs,” “driving at night,” “traveling anywhere after dark” or “traveling without prior approval and special security measures in place.”

There is no question that the termination of TPS protection will lead to hundreds, if not thousands, of deaths. Two centuries of foreign colonial and imperialist intervention following the only successful slave revolt in history have left the country in a state of collapse.

In a country of 11 million people, over five million are considered “food insecure” by the United Nations, with many parts of the country facing famine conditions. Meanwhile, heavily armed gangs control large swaths of the capital city, Port-au-Prince.

Ignoring all of this, in a staggeringly false statement attributed to “a DHS spokesperson,” the agency falsely claimed: “The environmental situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home.”

The statement noted that Secretary Noem “determined that conditions in Haiti no longer meet the TPS statutory requirements,” and that “overall, country conditions have improved to the point where Haitians can return home in safety.”

The statement concluded: “She further determined that permitting Haitian nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is contrary to the national interests of the United States.”

During the presidential campaign last year, as part of Donald Trump’s drive to whip up a pogrom-like atmosphere against immigrants, which went unanswered by Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democrats, Trump spread a fascist conspiracy theory that Haitian immigrants were stealing and eating the pets of residents in the town of Springfield, Ohio. The racist and baseless lie originated with the Nazi group called Blood Tribe and was repeated by virtually the entire Republican Party, including Trump’s vice presidential candidate JD Vance.

The revocation of TPS for Haitian immigrants follows the termination of the Cuba, Honduras, Nicaragua and Venezuela (CHNV) parole program in April. On May 30, the US Supreme Court lifted an injunction issued by a federal district court the prior month, paving the way for the immigration Gestapo to begin revoking parole and work authorizations prior to deportation.

The termination of TPS for Haitian immigrants is a monumental crime. Not only are over half a million people now facing deportation to a country mired in crisis, but since March, Erik Prince, formerly of Blackwater Worldwide, has been operating a drone assassination squad in coordination with the US-backed interim government.

Prince’s Blackwater mercenaries are responsible for some of the more heinous war crimes conducted by US imperialism during its illegal invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, including the Nisour Square Massacre on September 16, 2007. On that day, Blackwater contractors armed with heavy machine guns and fragmentation grenades murdered at least 17 Iraqis and injured 20 more.

Four of the mercenaries were later convicted for their crimes, including murder and manslaughter, but in 2020 President Trump pardoned the killers as part of his efforts to cultivate a fascistic base of support among US Special Forces and private military contractors.

Since at least March 1 of this year, a secret assassination task force created by Haitian interim prime minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, working with Prince’s mercenaries, has been conducting lethal drone operations against alleged “gang members.”

In May, the Wall Street Journal reported that the task force is using “drones strapped with explosives,” and that at least 300 people had been killed.

The Journal reported in April that Prince and private security contractors affiliated with him met with leaders in the Haitian government to “discuss work on security.” Four days after the Journal’s report, the New York Times confirmed that Prince is “working with Haiti’s government to conduct lethal operations against gangs.”

Citing “senior Haitian and American government officials,” the Times reported that Prince has signed a contract “to take on the criminal groups” and that “Prince’s team has been operating the drones since March.”

Prince, the brother of Trump’s former education secretary Betsy DeVos, has been “scouting Haitian American military veterans to hire to send to Port-au-Prince and is expected to send up to 150 mercenaries to Haiti over the summer.” Citing “two experts,” the newspaper reported that Prince “recently shipped a large cache of weapons to the country.”

The Times reported that, in addition to Prince, “at least one other American security company is working in Haiti, though details of its role are secret.”