The San Diego, California-based Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA), alongside over 300 labor unions, civil and human rights organizations, faith leaders, business voices, and community groups across the United States, on Friday sent a letter to President Donald Trump, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, urging the reversal of the administration’s decision to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for over 300,000 Haitian nationals living here.
The administration’s termination of TPS for Haitians takes effect on February 3, 2026.
HBA Executive Director Guerline Jozef told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that Trump seems to be pushing ahead with ending TPS for Haitians, ‘despite significant gang violence, a humanitarian crisis, and instability’ in the French-speaking Caribbean country.
‘The Trump administration’s decision comes as Haiti is experiencing record-level gang violence, mass displacement of more than one million people, and state collapse, conditions so severe that the US government itself has designated Haiti a Level 4 ‘Do Not Travel’ country,’ Jozef said.
‘To simultaneously acknowledge that Haiti is too dangerous for Americans while forcing hundreds of thousands of Haitians to return is not policy – it is hypocrisy weaponized as governance,’ she added.
In their letter to Trump, HBA and the groups write that ‘extending and redesignating TPS for Haitians is in the clear national interest of the United States, from a labor, business, and taxpayer perspective.
‘This is not an appeal to charity; it is an appeal to pragmatic self-interest, grounded in facts,’ says the letter, noting that, as of March 31, 2025, about 1.3 million people had TPS in the United States.
The letter says recent analyses estimate that about 570,000 TPS holders are active in the US labor force, including roughly 95,000 in leisure and hospitality, 90,000 in construction, 85,000 in business services, 80,000 in wholesale/retail, and 70,000 in manufacturing.
Moreover, the letter says hospitals have ranked in the top five employment industries for Haitian TPS holders in particular.
‘These workers are overwhelmingly employed,’ says the letter, pointing to one study that found that 94.6 percent of TPS holders were working in 2021, contributing billions in federal, state, and local taxes and roughly US$8 billion in spending power in that year alone.
It says that, according to official records, roughly 330,000-353,000 Haitians currently benefit from TPS.
‘Removing their work authorization will not magically create other workers to replace them-instead, it will disrupt US employers who rely on this legal, vetted workforce; worsen labor shortages in construction, service, and care industries in key states; (and) harm co-workers of former TPS holders, including US-born co-workers, who will variously face job loss, forced overtime, and other negative impacts due to supply chain disruptions,’ warns the letter to Trump.
It also warns that terminating TPS for Haitians will reduce tax revenue and consumer demand in local economies; and force workers into the shadow economy, where they will be at risk of exploitation.
From a security standpoint, the letter says it is safer and cheaper to allow Haitian TPS holders working legally inside the United States than to fuel a new wave of instability and irregular migration in the Caribbean basin.
‘Extending TPS for Haitians is fully consistent with the TPS statute and more supportive of US interests than triggering a new wave of instability and potential irregular migration in the region would have on the United States,’ the letter says.
‘For these reasons, we respectfully urge your administration to rescind the termination and redesignate Haiti for TPS, or, at minimum, extend Haiti’s TPS designation beyond February 3, 2026; and instruct DHS to review the economic, security, and regional-stability impacts of Haitian TPS including impacts on US workers and labor markets, enforcement costs, and Caribbean security,’ it adds.
‘By extending TPS for Haiti, the United States protects its own economy, security, and regional interests while maintaining stability in our own neighborhood,’ the letter continues.
Jozef said that Haitian TPS holders are, among others, nurses, construction workers, caregivers, hotel workers, and manufacturers.
‘They keep hospitals open, rebuild cities after disasters, care for our elders, and pay billions in taxes,’ she said. ‘To strip them of status is to deliberately harm US workers, sabotage the economy, and push families into fear and precarity.
‘Large-scale deportations and maritime interdictions cost taxpayers billions, drain DHS resources, and fuel instability across the Caribbean,’ Jozef added. ‘TPS holders are already vetted, documented, and self-supporting. Ending TPS will force the federal government to spend more money to make the country less safe – while empowering gangs and human traffickers abroad.’