The Biden administration will renew deportation protections for up to 309,000 illegal immigrants from Haiti, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services published a notice in the Federal Register Friday that it would renew the 18-month Temporary Protection Status for Haitian citizens in the United States through Feb. 3, 2026.

“After consultation with interagency partners, Secretary Mayorkas determined on June 3, 2024, that an 18-month extension and redesignation of Haiti for TPS is warranted because conditions that support Haiti’s designation are ongoing and that doing so was not contrary to the national interest of the United States,” the DHS wrote in a statement Friday morning.

The Caribbean country has faced severe violence following a 2010 earthquake, as well as severely limited access to food, water, healthcare, and jobs, as criminal gangs have taken control over much of the country. Haiti was first designated for TPS following the 2010 earthquake.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy director for the American Immigration Council in Washington, said in a post on X the situation in Haiti has become dire, and the Biden administration’s decision not to repatriate illegal immigrants to Haiti was the precise type of situation that TPS was intended for.

Sen. Edward Markey (D-MA) also applauded the Biden administration for renewing TPS for Haiti.

“The Haitian people continue to face extraordinary threats of violence in their country, and the federal government also must halt deportations by air and sea,” said Markey in a statement Friday afternoon. “This humanitarian action will prevent further suffering and ensure Haitian families are free to remain in the United States until it is safe for them to return home.”

The conditions in Haiti have forced hundreds of thousands of Haitian citizens to flee to other countries, including the U.S., Mexico, and nations in Central America and South America.

Haitian citizens may apply for the first time or renew their TPS status to be safe from deportation and gain permits to work in the U.S. through the 2026 cutoff date. Although roughly 309,000 Haitian citizens in the country are eligible, not all may choose to apply or be approved. Applicants must have been living in the U.S. before June 3 to be eligible.

The number of Haitian citizens eligible to apply for TPS has increased significantly since former President Donald Trump took office in 2017, from 46,000 to 309,000.

Early on in the Trump administration, the White House threatened to end TPS for several countries.

Trump criticized his predecessors for renewing national memberships every 18 months in the TPS program, which allows illegal immigrants from specific countries to remain in the country and work because the home country is unstable as a result of political or environmental problems. Trump said crises in those countries that began 20 and 30 years ago could not still affect its ability to take back its citizens.

However, the Trump administration renewed TPS designations for most participating countries in 2019, including Haiti.

Although the administration tried to rescind some, it was blocked in court from doing so. In other cases, it continued the years-old programs because conditions in those countries had not dramatically improved.

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The Biden administration has continued to renew most countries’ destinations since 2021.

Congress created TPS in 1990 as a way to help countries that had been seriously harmed by armed conflict, famine, or natural disaster from having to repatriate citizens deported from the U.S. TPS status can be requested from the U.S. government by the countries at any time. If approved, its citizens in the U.S. could apply for 18-month reprieves from deportation and permits to work.