By Dylan Tusinski
Hundreds of Haitians living in Maine under temporary protected status may soon face the possibility of deportations after the federal government announced it will revoke legal protections for those fleeing civil war and natural disasters, which have ravaged the country in recent decades.
The termination of temporary protected status, or TPS, will affect some 500,000 Haitians in the U.S. legally, at least 200 of whom are in Maine, according to the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project.
TPS allows people to live in the U.S. when their homelands are made unsafe by wars or natural disasters. It has been given to immigrants from countries marred by civil conflict like Afghanistan or rocked by natural disasters like Nepal. The Trump administration has terminated TPS for both of those countries as well.
The Department of Homeland Security posted a formal notice Tuesday that it is terminating TPS for Haiti effective Sept. 2, saying in a memo that while the country is still consumed by violent conflict, 鈥渋t is contrary to the national interest to permit Haitian nationals (or aliens having no nationality who last habitually resided in Haiti) to remain temporarily in the United States.鈥
鈥淕ang violence in Haiti persists as armed groups operate with impunity, enabled by a weak or effectively absent central government,鈥 the memo reads. 鈥淭his breakdown in governance directly impacts U.S. national security interests, particularly in the context of uncontrolled migration.鈥
The government鈥檚 decision to end TPS implies that Haiti is safe enough for immigrants to return to, said Sue Roche, executive director of the ILAP. But she said the State Department鈥檚 own travel advisories contradict that notion, as the agency warns against travel to Haiti because of the risk of mob killings and gang-related kidnappings.
Roche said she believes the decision is based more in racial bias than in reality.
鈥淔or the Trump administration to claim that conditions in Haiti are anything but catastrophic and life-threatening is absurd,鈥 Roche said in a written statement. 鈥淭he termination of TPS for Haiti shows the extent of the administration鈥檚 disrespect for our laws, racial animus, and abject cruelty, and it places the lives of Maine residents at risk.鈥
Haiti has been under TPS since a massive earthquake rocked the island nation in 2010. It has remained under the designation ever since, as civil wars, hurricanes and more earthquakes have torn through the country.
While the DHS memo acknowledges Haiti鈥檚 鈥渃oncerning鈥 situation, it emphasizes that the U.S. must 鈥減rioritize its national interests,鈥 and extending the legal protections to Haitians run counter to that, the administration says. DHS advised TPS holders to return to Haiti using a mobile application called CBP Home, according to the Associated Press.
鈥淒HS records indicate that there are Haitian nationals who are TPS recipients who have been the subject of administrative investigations for fraud, public safety, and national security. These issues underscore a conflict with the national interest of the United States,鈥 the agency wrote.
The TPS designation provides broader and more accessible protections for immigrants than the established asylum system, according to ILAP policy director Lisa Parisio.
While asylum applicants must prove their lives are in personal danger due to the threat of persecution for their race, politics or other protected grounds, TPS broadly provides legal protections to entire nationalities.
But TPS applies only to people already in the U.S. 鈥渁t the time that something catastrophic happens in their home country which makes it impossible for them to safely return,鈥 Parisio said.
鈥淔ollowing the aftermath of World War II, the United States made promises through various international treaties that we would never again return people to countries where their lives or freedom would be at risk. So TPS is one of the main humanitarian programs in our immigration system,鈥 Parisio said.
President Donald Trump campaigned on a pledge to ramp up mass deportations, in part by scaling back TPS protections. Trump highlighted Haitian immigrants in particular when he claimed without evidence during a presidential debate that they were abducting and eating pets in Ohio.
Revoking TPS could also affect Maine鈥檚 blueberry farms and Christmas tree industry, the ILAP said in a press release, both of which rely on Haitian immigrants for seasonal work each year.
Maine nonprofits that do humanitarian work in Haiti have also been forced to scale back their work funding maternal and child care facilities after the administration revoked hundreds of thousands of dollars they received in USAID grants.
鈥淲ith the stroke of a pen, an entire community will suffer. Others will step in to try to help, but they won鈥檛 be able to fill the void. These women and children will suffer,鈥 Perry Newman, executive director of nonprofit Konbit Sante, said at the time in February. 鈥淢any lives will be changed, and sadly, some lives will be lost.鈥