World Relief Decries Decision to Terminate Temporary Protected Status for Haitians, Urges Trump Administration to Reconsider and Congress to Oppose Deportation Funding in ‘Big, Beautiful’ Bill

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(Baltimore, MD) June 27, 2025 – Today,  the Trump administration announced the termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for hundreds of thousands of individuals from Haiti. Many of these individuals have been lawfully present since TPS was first designated after the devastating earthquake that occurred in 2010, while others have arrived more recently, fleeing the instability that has reigned over the country since the assassination of Haiti’s president in 2021. Haitians with TPS will lose their legal protections on September 2, putting them at risk of deportation and invalidating their legal employment authorization. 

“Another week, another mass illegalization of families and individuals who have been lawfully and peacefully residing in our country, who now could face deportation to one of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises,” lamented Myal Greene, president & CEO of World Relief. “As the administration has made clear that it’s priorities for deportation go far beyond those convicted of violent crimes — to individuals who have already cleared criminal background checks and have been working lawfully, providing for themselves and their families — it’s more vital than ever that Christians advocate for our brothers, sisters and neighbors facing the threat of cruel deportations.” 

Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court permitted the Trump administration to proceed with the termination of TPS for certain Venezuelans, so while this decision affecting Haitian nationals may face legal challenges, it seems likely that the courts will allow these Haitians’ legal protections to be withdrawn. The Supreme Court also recently allowed the Trump administration to proceed with the revocation of humanitarian parole — a distinct legal protection from TPS — for individuals from Venezuela, Haiti and other specific countries who entered lawfully after being sponsored by family members, church groups or others. The administration has now terminated these individuals’ parole, invalidating their employment authorization and sending notices to more than 500,000 of these humanitarian parolees threatening forced deportation if they do not self-deport. Separate, similar messages were sent to more than 900,000 individuals who entered lawfully with humanitarian parole at ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border, including some Afghan converts to Christianity.

“Haiti has been in a state of emergency for many months,” notes World Relief Haiti country director Pascal Bimenyimana. “The U.S. Department of State has warned Americans not to travel to Haiti ‘due to kidnapping, crime, civil unrest, and limited healthcare.’ To return hundreds of thousands of Haitians who have been residing lawfully in the United States to Haiti now would be inhumane, exacerbating the crisis facing the resilient Haitian people. Rather than forcibly returning Haitians living abroad, whose lawful work in the United States is both contributing to the U.S. economy and helping to sustain their family members still in Haiti, we urge Americans to partner with World Relief and our local church partners to respond to the humanitarian crisis in Haiti with compassion, working toward a future where no one feels the need to leave their homeland.”

Unless they have qualified for another legal status, such as asylum, Haitians who lose TPS in September will become vulnerable to deportation. Whether they will actually be deported will be significantly affected by the amount of funding that Congress appropriates to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for those purposes. The “Big, Beautiful” budget reconciliation bill currently being debated in the U.S. Senate would dramatically increase funding for detention and deportation. Detention funding alone, which is set at $3.4 billion for the current fiscal year, would increase to $45 billion, which could be spent over a few years.

“As Congress considers the ‘big, beautiful’ budget reconciliation bill, we urge Members of Congress to vote against including the bill’s massive increase in immigrant detention and deportation funding, which would almost certainly ensnare many of these abruptly-illegalized Haitians and others who came fleeing humanitarian crises,” said Matthew Soerens, vice president of advocacy and policy at World Relief.

World Relief encourages those who are concerned they may be affected by today’s announcement to consult with an accredited immigration legal service provider, including many offices of World Relief. World Relief is thankful for the ongoing financial support of individual donors and churches that allow us to sustain our work both meeting humanitarian needs in Haiti and supporting Haitians in the United States.