The President to End Temporary Residency for 60,000 Haitians

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Pierrot Mervilier, center rear, hugs a girl that did not wish to be identified, living in the U.S. with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) after she and her family spoke to members of the media, Monday, May 22, 2017, in Miami. The Trump administration is going to extend humanitarian protections for tens of thousands of Haitian immigrants who have been living in the United States since a deadly earthquake. Administration officials said the TPS for roughly 50,000 Haitians will expire in December. A final decision about the long-term fate of those immigrants will be decided at a later date. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
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Pierrot Mervilier, center rear, hugs a girl that did not wish to be identified, living in the U.S. with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) after she and her family spoke to members of the media, Monday, May 22, 2017, in Miami. The Trump administration is going to extend humanitarian protections for tens of thousands of Haitian immigrants who have been living in the United States since a deadly earthquake. Administration officials said the TPS for roughly 50,000 Haitians will expire in December. A final decision about the long-term fate of those immigrants will be decided at a later date. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
Pierrot Mervilier, center rear, hugs a girl that did not wish to be identified, living in the U.S. with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) after she and her family spoke to members of the media, Monday, May 22, 2017, in Miami. The Trump administration is going to extend humanitarian protections for tens of thousands of Haitian immigrants who have been living in the United States since a deadly earthquake. Administration officials said the TPS for roughly 50,000 Haitians will expire in December. A final decision about the long-term fate of those immigrants will be decided at a later date. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

The Trump administration said Monday it is ending a temporary residency permit program that has allowed almost 60,000 citizens from Haiti to live and work in the United States since a 2010 powerful earthquake shook the Caribbean nation. The Homeland Security Department said conditions in Haiti have improved significantly, so the benefit will be extended one last time , until July 2019 , to give Haitians time to prepare to return home.

“Since the 2010 earthquake, the number of displaced people in Haiti has decreased by 97 percent,” the department said in a press release. “Haiti is able to safely receive traditional levels of returned citizens.”

Advocates and members of Congress from both parties had asked the Trump administration for an 18-month extension of the program, known as Temporary Protected Status. Haitian President Jovenel Moise’s government also requested the extension.

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