On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it had chosen to extend the access of Haitian immigrants to a humanitarian protection program for a further six months.
A minimum of 50,000 immigrants from Haiti are registered for the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program, which allows them to remain in the United States and hold jobs there following a catastrophic earthquake in Haiti in 2010. The TPS program was scheduled to expire on July 23rd.
The status of these immigrants has been extended for another six months until January 22nd. However, some immigration advocates, US lawmakers, and authorities in Haiti were disappointed that the renewal was not granted for a longer period of time.
Secretary of the DHS John Kelly said that Haiti has been making progress on a variety of fronts since the earthquake of 2010 and that he is proud of the part played by the United States in assisting their friends in the nation.
Kelly also said that the extension will allow Haitian recipients of the TPS program the time to acquire travel documents and make arrangements for their exit from the United States, while also giving the Government of Haiti the chance to get ready for the eventual repatriation of their displaced citizens.
The Haiti Government had been trying to persuade the United States to extend the TPS program for at least another 12 months, according to an earlier statement from Paul Altidor, the country’s US ambassador.