SILVER SPRING, Maryland — After many months of advocacy from Black immigrant leaders and allies, the Department of Homeland Security announced today it will redesignate Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, for Haiti.

“CLINIC commends the administration’s decision to redesignate TPS for Haiti,” said Anna Gallagher, CLINIC’s Executive Director. “Haiti is currently facing increasingly dismal country conditions, including widespread violence, displacement, human rights violations and kidnappings. Protecting people from being returned to these conditions is exactly why Congress created TPS. The decision is not only correct under the law, but also under morality and our duty to each other as human beings.”

CLINIC stands in solidarity with the Black-led immigrant rights organizations, including Haitian Bridge Alliance and UndocuBlack Network, who worked tirelessly to secure this life-saving protection for Haitians in the United States.

CLINIC is a staunch advocate for the expansive use of TPS, a unique tool in the U.S. immigration system, which provides blanket humanitarian protection to nationals of an entire country. Within the DHS Secretary’s TPS authority is the power of redesignation. For countries currently designated for TPS, like Haiti, redesignation allows the Secretary to move forward in time the date by which a person needed to be in the United States to apply.

“Historically, both TPS as a whole and the power to redesignate have been underused by the U.S. government,” said Lisa Parisio, CLINIC’s Director of Advocacy. “CLINIC calls on the Biden administration to put in place a policy to use TPS broadly and boldly. The expansive use of TPS is essential to protect human life, keep families together, rebuild our economy, and serve other vital domestic and foreign policy interests.”

In addition to today’s announcement, CLINIC urges the Biden administration to immediately halt the use of Title 42 and put in place a comprehensive policy of protection for Haitians currently fleeing for their lives, including those currently on the Mexico side of the U.S.-Mexico border. CLINIC also calls for the 18-month extension and redesignation of Somalia and Yemen at the upcoming TPS decision dates, and the immediate designation of TPS for Cameroon and Mauritania.