South Florida Haitians express outrage, fear as Trump administration moves to end TPS protections
November 29, 2025
Members of South Florida's Haitian community are sounding the alarm after the Trump administration announced it will terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for more than 350,000 Haitian immigrants living in the United States — a decision that could leave thousands of local families vulnerable to deportation in less than 60 days.
Administration officials have urged TPS holders to "self-deport" if they want to avoid forced removal. For many Haitians who have lived in the U.S. for decades, the announcement felt like a devastating and disorienting blow.
"For me and for many, it's just a death sentence," said Farah Larrieux, who has lived in South Florida for 20 years and is among the hundreds of thousands whose protections are now set to expire on Feb. 3, 2026.
Larrieux rejected the administration's assertion that Haiti is safe for returning nationals. "This idea that Haitians can safely return home is a big lie," she said.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem acknowledged Haiti's ongoing political upheaval and humanitarian crisis, but the Department of Homeland Security's termination notice framed the decision as one driven by national interest.
"While the current situation in Haiti is concerning," the notice states, "the United States must prioritize its national interests, and permitting Haitian nationals to remain temporarily in the U.S. is contrary to the U.S. national interest."
Larrieux said the timing, arriving just before the Thanksgiving holiday, felt particularly painful.
"It's ungrateful," she said, describing the announcement as dismissive of the Haitian community's contributions to the country.
Local activists echoed her frustration, pointing to rampant violence and instability in Haiti, where armed criminal groups control large swaths of the country.
"We have daily situations of rape, kidnapping, or murder," said community advocate Paul Mamphy. He noted that even as TPS is being terminated, the administration recently designated two Haitian gangs as Foreign Terrorist Organizations, an acknowledgment, he said, that the situation remains life-threatening.
Mamphy said Haitian advocacy groups plan to pursue legal action and will unveil their strategy next week. He emphasized that Haitians living in the U.S. are deeply woven into the national workforce.
"We work very hard here in South Florida and throughout the country, putting food on the table, building the buildings you see, working in hospitality, elder care, and restaurants," he said.
Many TPS holders have built decades-long lives in the U.S., raising families and establishing careers without any permanent path to legal status. When asked why so many longtime residents remain on temporary protections, Larrieux pointed to years of gridlock in Washington.
"We didn't choose to be undocumented," she said. "For many years, both parties failed us. They failed to pass immigration reform, and that's why so many people got stuck in the middle."
Community leaders say the fight is far from over. A coalition of Haitian organizations plans to hold a news conference Monday to outline next steps and mobilize public pressure to preserve TPS, a program many in South Florida say is critical for thousands of families who have nowhere safe to return.
More from CBS News
National Center of Haitian Apostolate
Reflection for the First Sunday of Advent Year A – November 30, 2025
Readings: Isaiah 2:1-5; Psalm 122:1-2...; Romans 13:11-14; Matthew 24:37-44
https://youtu.be/5uwQBT8wRsc?si=tDSGrga3jtlCtsoq
Msgr. Pierre André Pierre
My brothers and sisters in Christ, today we enter into the season of Advent. It is a new beginning. We conclude the Jubilee Year of Hope by lighting the first candle of the Advent wreath, the CANDLE OF HOPE. Today’s readings, taken from the Gospel of Matthew, the Letter of Paul to the Romans, and the prophet Isaiah, remind us of three essential pieces of advice: 1) Remain vigilant and attentive; 2) Reject the works of darkness and live in the light of Christ; 3) Walk together for peace and unity.
I want to connect this Word of God to the current event of Pope Leo XIV’s first apostolic journey to Turkey and Lebanon. This journey carries a message of peace and unity. One could also consider Haiti’s qualification for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
First: Peace and unity are possible, Unity in the Nicene Creed.
Pope Leo XIV is traveling to Turkey to commemorate the 1700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, held in 325. This was a pivotal moment in the history of the Church, which affirmed the divinity of Christ and gave birth to our Nicene Creed. It was a decisive victory for truth and unity in the Church. In the great debate about Jesus that was dividing the Church, the bishops met the challenge of unity in a Theological Declaration: “Jesus is God, Son of God, not created, consubstantial to the Father.” “Like those Fathers of the Council of Nicaea, we have a mission to remain steadfast in the fundamental truths of our faith, especially in the face of division. To build peace and unity, we must remain rooted in the truth. Our hope does not rest on shifting sands, but on the unchanging truth of Christ, ‘born of the Father before all ages.’
Secondly: Peace amidst turmoil.
Pope Leo XIV’s journey continues to the Middle East, to Lebanon, a nation in crisis and on the brink of collapse. He will offer them a message of peace and solidarity. This echoes the prophetic vision of Isaiah: ‘All nations will come to the mountain of the Lord; they will beat their swords and spears into plowshares…’ In a world plagued by conflict and war, chasing after money and power, authority and the domination of the strong over the weak, we find here a message of solidarity and peace.” Like Pope Leon, let us embrace the mission to be messengers of solidarity and peace. Our Advent hope should inspire us to pray and work for reconciliation and peace, not only in distant lands, but also in our own countries, in our families, and in our communities.
Thirdly: A call to vigilance.
Finally, in the Gospel, Jesus strongly urges us to remain vigilant and to prepare for his return. St. Paul expresses the same idea in the Epistle to the Romans. He encourages us to “put on the armor of light” and to live honorable lives. This is much more than a simple spiritual exercise. It is a concrete choice to be made every day. The apostolic mission of Pope Leo XIV can inspire us to a revival and an awareness of our own mission: to bring hope, unity, and peace to our world.
In these difficult times for Haiti and its people, faced with the suffering and hardships that surround them, let us break free from our indifference. Let us open our hearts and stand in solidarity with Haiti and its people, who seek peace and stability. Our hope as Christians is not to wait passively, but to act in solidarity with those who suffer. In this Advent season, let us reject the works of darkness and prepare our hearts to welcome the Incarnate Word.
Like Isaiah, who saw the nations flocking to the mountain of the Lord, let us walk in faith, vigilant and committed to justice and peace in our communities. Thus, at the return of Jesus, he will find us ready, filled with hope, and at work for his Kingdom. Amen.
Trump says Haiti no longer meets requirements for TPS. Haitians have to leave
Jacqueline CharlesUpdated November 26, 2025 5:59 PM
The Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday announced the end of temporary immigration protections for Haitians, adding them to a growing list of immigrant groups seeing their protected status revoked by the Trump administration.
The decision, which becomes effective on Feb. 3, 2026, could affect more than a half million Haitians living in the U.S. under what is known as Temporary Protected Status. The designation was granted to Haiti after a string of natural and political disasters, starting with a catastrophic earthquake in 2010 that left the country and economy in ruins.
Barring potential legal delays from lawsuits, Haitians now will face returning to an unstable country facing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises as criminal gangs control all major roads in and out of the capital of Port-au-Prince, and aggressively spread their terror to other regions.
DHS in its Federal Register notice acknowledged that “certain conditions in Haiti remain concerning.” But despite that, and the escalating violence “that has ‘engulfed’ Port-au-Prince‘, Secretary Kristi Noem “has determined that there are no extraordinary and temporary conditions in Haiti that prevent Haitian nationals (or aliens having no nationality who last habitually resided in Haiti) from returning in safety,” the agency wrote.
“Moreover, even if the Department found that there existed conditions that were extraordinary and temporary that prevented Haitian nationals,” the agency added, “from returning in safety, termination of Temporary Protected Status of Haiti is still required because it is contrary to the national interest of the United States to permit Haitian nationals ...to remain temporarily in the United States.”
As of 11:59 p.m. February 3, 2026, all Haitian nationals who have been granted TPS, will lose the status and must leave.
“After consulting with interagency partners, Secretary Noem concluded that Haiti no longer meets the statutory requirements for TPS,” the agency wrote in its announcement.
“This decision was based on a review conducted by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, input from relevant U.S. government agencies, and an analysis indicating that allowing Haitian nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is inconsistent with U.S. national interests.”
The numbers paint a terrible picture in Haiti. A record 5.7 million people — 51% of the total population — are currently experiencing acute levels of hunger, with children increasingly at risk for malnutrition, the World Food Program recently warned. Meanwhile, as many as 1 in 4 Haitians, 2.7 million people, are forced to live in gang-controlled neighborhoods, more than 1.4 million are internally displaced, according to the United Nations. Rape, kidnapping and gang-related killings, all over 4,000 this year, are daily realities of life.
DHS said that the data indicates parts of the country are suitable to return to. That isn’t entirely true.
Even in communities, where armed groups are not yet visibly a problem, the situation is critical. The northern port city of Cap-Haïtien, which until this month offered the only access for international flights amid an ongoing U.S. Federal Aviation Administration ban on U.S. carriers, is bursting at the seams. The southern regions are also struggling to recover from Hurricane Melissa.
The storm’s recent passage unleashed widespread disruption and compounded existing problems with food and transportation, even though the country dodged a direct hit. At least 43 deaths were reported, mostly in the south, which is today completely cut off from the north and capital by road due to the presence of gangs that on Sunday once more forced the suspension of flights after firing on a domestic airline as it landed at the Port-au-Prince airport.
“Many households rely on unsafe water sources and lack access to basic sanitation, increasing the risk of disease outbreaks,” the U.N. said about the situation in southern Haiti. “Health facilities are under-equipped, financially inaccessible for many, and unable to provide mental health support. As a result, preventable illnesses and malnutrition are on the rise, particularly among children and pregnant women. Vulnerable groups — including women, girls, and youth — face heightened protection risks, including exploitation and violence.”
Though DHS previously announced the end of Haiti’s designation as of Feb. 3, the law requires the secretary to review country conditions at least 60 days before the expiration of TPS to determine whether the country continues to meet the conditions for designation.
“Based on the Department’s review, the Secretary has determined that while the current situation in Haiti is concerning, the United States must prioritize its national interests and permitting Haitian nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is contrary to the U.S. national interest,” the notice said.
The administration’s decision isn’t surprising. Since taking office, President Donald Trump has moved to rollback immigration protections for Haitians and others, and ended TPS protections for millions of migrants from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Honduras, Syria, Nepal, Cameroon, Afghanistan, Burma, Somalia and Myanmar.
The agency’s order, issued a day before the Thanksgiving holiday, was blunt: “If you are an alien who is currently a beneficiary of TPS for Haiti, you should prepare to depart if you have no other lawful basis for remaining in the United States.”
But advocates for Haitians in the U.S. called the move poorly-timed and cruel.
“If Haiti doesn’t warrant TPS, which country does?” said Guerline Jozef, co-founder of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, a San Diego immigrant rights group. “For this news to come on the eve of Thanksgiving is devastating.”
Jozef pointed out that Washington has acknowledged both in recent communiqués and actions the crisis plaguing Haiti, which has been mired by repeated crises since its first designation. Among them: a deadly Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and a 7.2 earthquake in in 2021, five weeks after its president, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated in the middle of the night.
In justifying its decision, DHS quoted U.N. Secretary General António Guterres’s comments in August that “there are emerging signals of hope.” But in that same meeting, he also warned that they were in “a perfect storm” of suffering as state authority crumbled across Haiti and lawlessness and gang brutality paralyze daily life.
In May, the Trump administration designated a powerful coalition of gangs, Viv Ansanm, and another group, Gran Grif, as Foreign Terrorists Organizations. In September, the U.S.’s new ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz, led an aggressive push at the U.N. Security Council for support for a new Gang Suppression Force to help in the fight against terrorist gangs. Despite DHS’ highlight of these decisions, little has improved in Haiti since the steps were taken. In fact, the situation has worsened.
The deployment of the first contingent of the 5,500-GSF is still uncertain even as the U.S. pushes for general elections, which last took place in 2016, and last week gangs escalated their attacks. The latter, led the State Department on Monday to revoke the visa of a member of the ruling presidential council, Fritz Alphonse Jean. Jean has vehemently denied the accusations, and in a scathing press conference on Tuesday accused the U.S. of threatening him and others because they want to fire the prime minister over “incompetence.”
A State Department spokesperson, responding to a Miami Herald inquiry about Jean’s claims, said “We will not comment on or speculate about private diplomatic discussions or unverified reports.”
In another recent example reflecting conditions in Haiti: Over the weekend, a group of members of Congress, mostly Republicans, visited the Dominican Republic after canceling plans to travel to Port-au-Prince amid safety and logistics concerns.
“It makes absolutely no sense for the U.S. to terminate TPS for Haiti at this critical time, where the admiration has acknowledged the ongoing political crisis in Haiti to the point of having a Level 4 ‘Do not travel’ warning to the country,” Jozef said. “They must protect the Haitian who have called the U.S. home for over a decade, those who are already here, who have families, who have businesses in their adoptive communities.”
It’s not the first time the administration has tried to revoke TPS for Haitians. Soon after taking office this year, Trump attempted to rollback an extension given under the Biden administration. The decision was overridden by a New York federal judge, who said Noem had no authority to shorten the designation. The decision was part of a lawsuit spearheaded by a group of lawyers that, included Miami immigration attorney Ira Kurzban.
The suit was amended earlier this year to prevent the administration from ending the designation. Kurzban, who also successfully sued DHS during the first Trump administration after it sought to revoke TPS for Haitians, said the administration’s rationale for ending TPS is based on “outright lies.”
“Haiti is in political and economic turmoil due in large measure to U.S. foreign policy, including by the current administration. The reasons offered to terminate TPS are frivolous and include mischaracterizations and outright lies,” he said.
“They are a product of Trump, [Vice President JD] Vance and Sec. Noem’s actions that demonstrate hatred of Haitians and racism toward Black refugees.”
This story was originally published November 26, 2025 at 12:30 PM.
-Jacqueline Charles has reported on Haiti and the English-speaking Caribbean for the Miami Herald for over a decade. A Pulitzer Prize finalist for her coverage of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, she was awarded a 2018 Maria Moors Cabot Prize — the most prestigious award for coverage of the Americas.