Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem started the legal process to end Haiti's Temporary Protected Status designation. The Homeland Security secretary grants this protective status to people from certain countries undergoing war, environmental disasters and epidemics.

People with Temporary Protected Status are protected from deportation and are allowed to legally live and work in the U.S. for six- to 18-month periods. Temporary Protected Status beneficiaries must be in the U.S. at the time of their home country's designation to apply.

Noem's Feb. 20 notice vacated a previous order from former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas during former President Joe Biden's administration. Mayorkas extended and redesignated Hati's protection for 18 months, allowing beneficiaries to remain in the U.S. through Feb. 3, 2026. Noem reduced the designation period; the protections expire Aug. 3, 2025.

President Donald Trump promised to end protections for Haitians while campaigning as he spread the falsehood that Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, were stealing and eating people's pets. 

When protections expire, people revert to the status they had before these protections, immigration experts previously told PolitiFact. And people who don't have a legal basis to stay in the U.S. would have to leave the country or be subject to deportation.

But that deportation wouldn't be immediate, Stephen Yale-Loehr, a Cornell University  immigration law professor, told PolitiFact in October 2024.

"They would all have a right to a removal hearing before an immigration judge to determine whether they have some right to remain here, such as asylum," Yale-Loehr said. That could take years because of immigration court backlogs.

Haiti first got Temporary Protected Status in January 2010, following an earthquake that killed hundreds of thousands of people. After that, the Department of Homeland Security periodically extended Haiti's protections. 

Trump's administration decided Haiti's protections would end July 22, 2019. Courts blocked that termination and the Trump administration appealed. The case was not resolved by the time Trump left office in January 2021. 

In May 2021, the Biden administration redesignated Haiti's Temporary Protected Status, citing security concerns, civil rights unrest and "crippling poverty." 

Conditions in Haiti worsened in July 2021 after Haitian President Jovenel Moïse's assassination,   an August 2021 earthquake and tropical storm. Gangs also control parts of the country, including 85% of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, the United Nations reported in November 2024.

During Biden's administration, while extending and redesignating Haiti's protections last June, the Department of Homeland Security estimated that about 521,000 Haitians qualified for the protection. As of September 2024, about 171,000 had been approved and about 343,000 had pending applications, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services reported.

It's possible Haitians will sue the Trump administration over the decision to end the Temporary Protected Status designation. Venezuelans sued the Trump administration Feb. 20 after Noem ended the protections for certain Venezuelans. 

Noem's order begins the process of ending protections for Haitians. But because the protections have not yet ended, and legal challenges could follow, we rate the promise In the Works.