Participant: If Haiti has become more violent, why should you end the temporary protected status of the Haitians in the USA?

Secretary of the home protection authority Kristi Noem announced Last month, this temporary protected status for around 500,000 Haitians would end on September 2, five months earlier than planned. The Trump administration has cited incorrect and contradictory reviews of conditions in Haiti – which, no mistakes, remain insecure.

Although a US district court stopped The measure – at least temporarily – and restored the original date of termination of February 3, will probably question the administration. The result of such a contestation could stop whether the courts receive and believe a precise presentation of current events in Haiti.

The administration alleged Overall, “the country conditions have improved so far that the Haitians can return to home.” Nothing could be removed from the truth. But only a few outsiders have been entering the country recently, so that the truth can be difficult to recognize.

At the end of April and early May, as a researcher for Human Rights Watch, I traveled to the northern city of Cap-Haïtien. For the first time in the several years in which I worked in Haiti Bands of shot, Jetblue and American Airlines passenger jets in flight.

In cap-hais, me spoke With dozens of people who have fled the capital and other cities in the past few months. Many common reports on murders, injuries caused by stray balls and gang rapes by criminal -person members.

“We went to school when we saw the bandits who shoot in houses, in humans, with everything that was moving,” said a 27-year-old woman, a student from Port-Au-Prince. “We started to run back, but then then [my sister] Guerline fell down to his face. She was shot in the back of the head, then I saw [my cousin] Alice shot into his chest. “The student crawled under a car where she hid for hours.

This Rampant Violence is Precisely the Sort of Conditions Congress Had in Mind When WHEN IT Passed the Temporary Protected Status Law in 1990. It Recognized a Gap in Protection for Situations in which a person might not be to eat to estaflish that they have beeted for persecution on the basis of their Liefs or identity – the standard for permanent asylum claims – but rather When a person's life is at real risk because of high levels of generalized violence that make it too for anyone to be return to the location.

If an administration grants this name, this is for a defined period that can be extended on the basis of the conditions in the home country of the recipient. For example, the protected status for people from Somalia was first described in 1991 and was repeatedly expanded, most recently until March 17, 2026.

Almost 1.3 million people are sold internally in Haiti. They flee increasing violence through criminal groups that killed more than 5,600 people in 2024 – 23% more than in 2023. Some Analysts Suppose the country has the highest murder rate in the world. Criminal groups control almost 90% of capital and are extended to other places.

The Ministry of Homeland Security Pervers publicly admits this reality. Citing in a federal register notification “Widespread gang violence” as a reason for end temporary protected status. The government argues that “breakdown of the government” Haiti is unable to control migration, and therefore a continued name for the protection of people would be before the “national interests” of the United States.

Even judging according to this criterion, it is a bad idea to revoke the legal status of the Haitians in the United States. Sending half a million people to Haiti would be very destabilized and controlled against US interests – not to mention that their lives would be endangered.

The Trump government has not taken any sensible measures to improve Haiti's situation. The multinational security support mission led by Kenya, authorized The UN Security Council and originally supported by the United States has been on site for a year. Still because of Serious lack of personnel, resources and funds did not manage to desperate the support of the Haitian police. At the end of February the UN Secretary General António Guterres recommended Steps to strengthen the mission, but the Security Council still has to act.

The humanitarian situation In Haiti continues to worsen. An estimated 6 million people need humanitarian aid. Almost 5.7 million face acute hunger.

On June 26, just one day before the attempt by the home protection administration, the deputy state secretary Christopher Landau, the deputy state secretary of Haitians, described The persistent crisis in Haiti as “discouraging”. He said that “public order has almost collapsed” when “Haiti descends into chaos”. Two days earlier the US message in Haiti output A security warning calls on the US citizens in the country to “arrive as soon as possible”. These are not a sign that “the conditions for the countries have improved to the point, at which Haitians can return to home safely”, as the home protection on June 27 claimed.

The decision to end the temporary protected status prematurely is completely separated from reality. The Trump government itself has warned that Haiti remains dangerous – and if something has become more in the past few months. The US government should continue to protect Haitians who are now living in the United States because they are thrown into brutal violence that unfolds in their home country.

Nathalee Cotrino is a high -ranking America's researcher at Human Rights Watch.