The Trump administration is throwing out protections for roughly half a million Haitians that had shielded them from deportation.
The decision announced Thursday means they would lose their work permits and could be eligible to be removed from the country by August of this year.
The Department of Homeland Security in a news release said it was vacating a decision by the Biden administration to renew Temporary Protected Status for Haitians. That status gives people legal authority to be in the country but doesn’t provide a long-term path to citizenship. And it must be renewed regularly by the government.
Critics have said that, over time, the renewal of the protection status becomes automatic, regardless of what is happening in the person’s home country.
