WASHINGTON (Reuters)

The United States (US) will expand Haitian eligibility for a humanitarian programme that grants deportation relief and work permits to immigrants who cannot safely return to their home countries, the US Department of Homeland Security announced today (May 22).

A new designation of so-called Temporary Protected Status (TPS) will cover an estimated 150,000 Haitians already living in the US, Democratic Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey said in a written statement praising the decision.

Democrats, a few Republicans and pro-immigrant advocates had pressed the administration of President Joe Biden to make more Haitians in the country illegally eligible for deportation relief. Former President Donald Trump, a Republican, sought to end most TPS enrollment, including that of Haitians, but was stymied by federal courts.

The TPS programme grants deportation relief and work permits to immigrants whose home countries experience a natural disaster, armed conflict or other extraordinary event. The temporary program can be extended in six to 18-month intervals by the DHS secretary.

Haitians were granted TPS following a devastating 2010 earthquake in the Caribbean nation. The programme currently covers 59,000 Haitians residing in the United States since January 2011.

The latest move by the Biden administration would extend the program for 18 months for those already in it and expand eligibility to Haitians in the US as of May 21.

“Haiti is currently experiencing serious security concerns, social unrest, an increase in human rights abuses, crippling poverty, and lack of basic resources, which are exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic,” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a written statement.

“After careful consideration, we determined that we must do what we can to support Haitian nationals in the United States until conditions in Haiti improve so they may safely return home.”

Mayorkas stressed that Haitians who arrive in the US after May 21 will not be eligible and could be deported.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and more than 100 other organisations this week called on the Biden administration to make more Haitians eligible for the program, citing the country’s “widespread violence, civil and political unrest, economic and humanitarian strife, the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, and a lack of available vaccines”.

Menendez applauded the move, saying in a statement it “will avoid destabilising the island’s fragile recovery efforts”.

The Biden administration opened the TPS programme to an estimated 320,000 Venezuelans in January.

Roughly half of the Haitian and Venezuelan immigrants in the US live in Florida, according to the Washington-based Migration Policy Institute, a key swing state in US elections.

In the coming months, the Biden administration will also face decisions over whether to renew or expand TPS eligibility for immigrants from El Salvador, Honduras and five other countries covered by the programme.