Haitian group renews call to halt deportations to Haiti

The San Diego, CA-based Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA) on Monday, Oct. 26, renewed its call on the Trump administration to halt the deportation of Haitians, strongly condemning the removals. The group also called on the US Senate to restore Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for over 300, 000 Haitians whose TPS status the Trump administration refused to renew, subjecting Haitians to deportation.  HBA Executive Director Guerline Jozef told Caribbean Life that the administration continues to deport Haitians at a steady pace, the latest reportedly being on Oct. 22. “HBA reiterates its longstanding call for an immediate suspension of deportations to a country devastated by gang violence, mass displacement and institutional collapse,” she said. “Nearly 1.5 million people are internally displaced in Haiti, where armed groups continue to perpetrate killings, kidnappings, and attacks against civilians.” Jozef alluded to UN reports, where “thousands of girls and women have been raped across” the country.  She also said that, recently, four Salvadoran soldiers were kidnapped and that, a few months prior, several high-level officials within the Haitian government were also kidnapped.  “Despite these conditions, the Trump administration terminated Haiti's Temporary Protected Status and employment authorization designation effective July 27, 2026, jeopardizing protections for more than 300,000 Haitian nationals living in the United States and who have contributed to our nation’s economy,” Jozef said.  “The Trump administration knows Haiti is not safe; yet, it continues to deport people into a humanitarian catastrophe,” she added. “Stripping hundreds of thousands of Haitians of Temporary Protected Status while sending families into conditions of violence and instability is a profound assault on human dignity. Haitian lives are not disposable. “Black immigrant lives are not expendable,” Jozef continued. “We call on the Senate to act immediately and on this administration to end these deportations. No immigration policy should come at the expense of human life.”  Jozef noted that, in April 2026, the US House of Representatives, under the leadership of Democratic Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, with bipartisan support, passed legislation to extend TPS protections for Haitian nationals.  She said Senators Edward Markey and Lisa Blunt Rochester subsequently introduced S. 4814 to provide renewed TPS protections, which currently has 46 cosponsors.  “Despite these efforts, the Senate has yet to enact legislation safeguarding Haitian families from deportation,” Jozef said. “HBA urges the Senate to immediately pass legislation restoring TPS protections for Haitian nationals and calls on the Department of Homeland Security to suspend all deportations to Haiti and other countries facing humanitarian and insecurity crises.  “The United States must uphold its domestic and international legal obligations, including protections against returning individuals to persecution, torture, or other qualifying serious harm,” she added. “The Trump administration cannot credibly deny the dangers facing Haitian nationals when its own government has repeatedly acknowledged those very risks.” Jozef noted that the US Department of State maintains its level 4 travel warning for Haiti, Do Not Travel, restricts the movement of American diplomatic personnel, and acknowledges widespread killings, kidnappings and armed violence.  She said federal aviation restrictions further underscore the severity of the security crisis in Haiti.  “Yet, Haitian nationals continue to face deportation to the same country the United States warns its own citizens not to enter,” Jozef said. “If Haiti is too dangerous for American citizens and diplomatic personnel, the administration must explain why it continues to send Haitian families into those same conditions.”  She also said the Trump administration, “through its own actions on the international stage, in September 2025, co-sponsored a United Nations Security Council resolution authorizing a multinational force of up to 5,550 personnel to confront escalating gang violence, which the US, will finance.” Jozef said the Chadian and the Salvadoran governments have already deployed troops in Haiti under this agreement.