By Karen Jacobsen
Former President Donald Trump and his running mate, U.S. Sen. JD Vance, have criticized the Biden administration’s decision to allow Haitian nationals who are in the U.S. to apply for permission to stay under a legal classification called Temporary Protected Status. Here is what this designation means and how it’s made:
TPS permits foreign nationals who are already in the United States – even if they did not enter the country through an official or legal means – to remain for six, 12 or 18 months at a time if the situation in their home country is deemed too dangerous for them to return. Threats that prompt TPS designations include ongoing armed conflict, natural disasters, epidemics and other extraordinary and temporary conditions.
The Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security designates a foreign country for TPS when conditions there meet requirements spelled out in federal law. Once the secretary determines that the foreign country is safe for its nationals to return, their protected status expires and people who have been granted it are expected to return to their home country.
Congress created TPS as part of the Immigration Act of 1990. Since then, administrations have used it to protect thousands of people from dozens of countries. The first nations to be designated, in March 1991, were Kuwait, Lebanon and Liberia.
As of March 2024, there were 863,880 people from 16 countries under Temporary Protected Status in the U.S. Another 486,418 people had initial or renewal applications pending. An estimated 316,000 people may also be eligible under two new extensions since that date.
TPS beneficiaries may not be detained by federal officials over their immigration status or deported from the United States. They can obtain work permits and apply for authorization to travel outside the U.S. and return to it.
People who receive TPS don’t automatically become legal permanent residents. But they can petition for an adjustment of their immigration status, such as applying for permanent residency, a student visa or asylum. Applying for a change of immigration status does not necessarily mean their application will be approved.
Humanitarian measures
TPS is not the only tool administrations can use to protect people from countries facing disaster or conflict.
For example, a Haitian person currently living in the U.S. is eligible for TPS under a designation that lasts through Feb. 3, 2026. In contrast, a Haitian who travels through Mexico and applies for entry to the U.S. at the border is not likely to be admitted.
However, there is a third possibility for Haitians, known as parole. The federal government can give certain groups permission to enter or remain in the U.S. if it finds “urgent humanitarian or significant public benefit reasons” for doing so.
People who enter through parole programs must have an approved financial supporter in the U.S., undergo a robust security vetting and meet other eligibility criteria. They typically can stay for one to two years, and may apply for authorization to work.
One current parole program is for people from Latin American countries that are TPS designates. The U.S. government can grant advance permission to enter the U.S. to up to 30,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans each month. People fleeing these countries – all of which have been designated for Temporary Protected Status – can seek authorization to travel from their homes to the U.S. for urgent humanitarian reasons, and then stay for a temporary period of parole for up to two years.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
I’ve studied global migration and asylum policy for 25 years. I see both TPS and parole as legal and carefully considered ways to support people from countries experiencing wrenching conflict, disorder and disaster who are seeking safety in the U.S. Doing away with these programs, as Trump sought to do during his term in office, would make it extremely difficult for people in great danger to escape.
Neither TPS nor parole programs are automatic roads to citizenship or permanent residence. They are ways to provide humanitarian assistance to people in appalling circumstances, such as rampant gang violence in Haiti and economic hardship and political repression in Venezuela and Nicaragua.
Certainly, cities need more resources to support large numbers of immigrants. But offering temporary protection to people whose home countries are not safe places to live is a long-standing – and, in my view, crucial – element of U.S. immigration policy.
Karen Jacobsen is Henry J. Leir Chair in Global Migration, Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, Tufts University
deport republicans says
rcons dont care about humans only money and power. The cons have no policies that benefit people, so they just make up lies. Oldies don’t realize they’ve been duped. Scary time when a fascist guy who tried to overthrow an election didn’t get punished and is running again and republicons don’t care that he is a treasonous felon who only cares about not going to prison for his crimes. So who thinks he will be graceful when he loses again? lol.
DennisC Rathsam says
TRUMP derangement syndrome, strikes again! If all you folks think the race is dead even, Im happy for you. But deep down in your heart, & in the pit of your belly the heartburn is starting. Cold sweats at night, cant get back to sleep…All you can think of is TRUMP. He,s everywhere… on TV, Radio, from state to state he,s there. Some things were just ment to be
Mark says
Kamala Harris’ smiling face is the last thing Dennis see’s every night and wakes up to every morning, he just won’t admit it.
jackson says
The Haitians are here legally and they were asked by Springfield to come there. They are helping the economy in Springfield. The factories there needed workers. The factory owner said they are wonderful workers and he would love to have more of them. So Vance is willing, not only to lie about the Haitian immigrants, but he is willing to hurt the entire economy of Springfield? He won’t just be hurting the immigrants he will be hurting the formal residents of that town.
Skibum says
Both Trump and DeSantis have this unnatural fixation on migrants, as if they are non-human forms of pestilence that will doom all of American society. Isn’t it strange that both of these men reside in Florida, a state where for many decades now migrants fleeing from Cuba have been welcomed with open arms as soon as they reach any sandy shore and set foot on American soil. While Trump sits in his Mar-A-Lago compound, undoubtably with numerous dark skinned workers who are at his beck and call, he spews his anti-migrant venom and lies about a much smaller group of Haitian migrants who were welcomed into a community not in Florida, but nearly a thousand miles away in Springfield, OH. While DeSantis is having hissy fits about how horrible it is to have migrants crossing the Mexico border into the U.S. and spending secret amounts of our taxpayer dollars flying and busing migrants from faraway areas near the Mexico border areas of Texas to major democrat run cities in other states, the entire southern portion of Florida is populated by people of Cuban ethnicity, a population that now makes up 60% of residents in Miami and over 52% of Cubans in all of these United States. But do we hear any of the poison vitriol from either Trump or DeSantis about how all of these Cuban migrants have “poisoned the blood of this country”, or have been “eating the cats and dogs”? No, not a whimper from either of these disgusting men, because they not only understand that this large and diverse population of Cuban migrants and their multiple generations of offspring have settled in and are emersed into our society without the problems and horror stories that were said about them ever coming true, but these two wily politicians also watch their mouths because they fully know that those of Cuban ancestry here in Florida are a political force to be reckoned with. So, of course, they gravitate toward “other” migrants in faraway places and those who do not possess political power… who are ripe to be abused, denigrated, disparaged, made fun of by busing them to other states and dropping them at curbsides in strange places where they are left to make do with little or nothing. And I’m sure the the back rooms in Mar-A-Lago and the state capitol in Tallahassee, these Republi-cons are snickering and giving each other high fives and saying how clever they are. I believe most of us know better, and it is up to us, with the power of our vote, to give people like Trump and DeSantis what I believe they truly deserve… a good swift kick in the ass as we hopefully usher both of them forever out the door of any position of power over other people in this country.
Laurel says
Hi Skibum: As I replied to another comment of yours just a few minutes ago, Cuban Americans vote Republican. That reason, and that reason alone, is why Trump and Vance have no derogatory comments about Cuban refugees and their offspring.
Meanwhile, Trump has commented that the women of “The View” are “terrible people.” Ana Navarro, a Republican strategist, of Miami, was born in Nicaragua, and Sonny Hostin is a descendant of Puerto Rico. Oh, but they don’t like Trump, so the are terrible people.
Must be some more of that highly intellectual “weave” talk.
Skibum says
You are correct, and even though most Cuban refugees and their families consider themselves to be Republicans, political persuasions can and do change if they are not happy with the way they are treated. And that is why I believe Trump and DeSantis tread carefully around the issue of migrants while in Florida. Ana Navarro, The View host who is from Miami, has stated numerous times that she cannot understand why more Cuban-Americans in Florida aren’t fed up with Republicans and ready to switch political affiliations. Things could still change, so those in power here in this state need to watch their tongues and only trash the refugees who are far away in states like Texas and Ohio. That is my opinion.
joe says
One of my colleagues just suggested that after Trump’s stint at McDonalds, the store manager should check the cash register.
Skibum says
I wouldn’t worry about the cash register… check Trump’s phone to make sure he didn’t have phone numbers for and sending pornographic pics of his junk to the underage girls who were working at the Micky D’s!