Category: BusinessDayTest

The California-based Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA) has ‘strongly condemned’ the Donald Trump administration’s decision to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians.

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Wednesday posted a notice on the Federal Register terminating TPS for Haiti, effective February 3, 2026.

‘This decision is deeply troubling because, despite the termination, numerous credible assessments continue to confirm that Haiti remains dangerously unstable,’ HBA Executive Director Guerline Jozef told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).

‘For instance, ongoing reports from human rights organizations and US-based observers highlight pervasive gang violence, widespread displacement, political turmoil, and the collapse of essential state institutions.

‘Additionally, Haiti’s longstanding vulnerabilities, exacerbated by the 2010 earthquake, which killed more than two thousand people and subsequent crises, continue to threaten the lives and safety of ordinary Haitians,’ Jozef added.

She said more than 90 per cent of Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, is controlled by gangs ‘and to tackle the severe insecurity crisis, the United States, through the United Nations, has funded that Multinational Security Support (MSS), led by Kenya, and most recently transformed it to the Gang Suppression Force (GSF)’.

Jozef said that the United Nations Office of Migration announced more than 1.4 million people in Haiti have been displaced due to insecurity and gang violence.

She said terminating TPS now places more than 500,000 Haitian nationals, many of whom have lived in the United States for over a decade, in immediate jeopardy of losing lawful status, ‘despite their critical contributions to local economies across healthcare, construction, caregiving, and service industries.

‘Let us be clear: ending TPS for Haiti is not a policy decision, it is an act of violence against immigrant families and their children who have called the US home for over a decade,’ Jozef said.

‘When the US government knowingly chooses to send people back to a nation that they themselves have put on a category 4 do not travel due to the continued political crisis, that is state-sponsored cruelty on the eve of Thanksgiving,’ she added.

Jozef said the Trump administration’s decision will also impact millions of Haitians back in Haiti who depend on remittances sent by relatives.

‘We reject the idea that our communities must constantly justify their right to live, to work, to be safe. TPS is the bare minimum of protection, and even that is being stripped away. This is why we organize, resist, and demand a world where migration is not weaponized against the most vulnerable.’

Jozef is urging President Trump to reverse the decision to terminate TPS for Haiti, calling also on the United States Congress to create a ‘permanent, humane pathway for Haitian TPS holders.

‘We further urge federal officials to ensure that all assessments of country conditions remain transparent, accurate, and grounded in human rights principles rather than political expedience.

‘Ultimately, Haitian TPS holders are essential members of our communities-workers, parents, caregivers, and neighbors-and deporting them would destabilize families, disrupt local economies, and betray America’s longstanding commitments to protecting those fleeing harm,’ Jozef added.

She said that the Haitian Bridge Alliance stands firm in demanding ‘compassion, justice, and dignity for all Haitian immigrants during this critical moment’.

The DHS said that, after consulting with interagency partners, its Secretary Kristi Noem ‘concluded that Haiti no longer meets the statutory requirements for TPS.

‘This decision was based on a review conducted by US Citizenship and Immigration Services, input from relevant US government agencies, and an analysis indicating that allowing Haitian nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is inconsistent with US national interests,’ said DHS in a statement.

‘If you are an alien who is currently a beneficiary of TPS for Haiti, you should prepare to depart if you have no other lawful basis for remaining in the United States,’ it added.

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has welcomed the passage of the stand your ground legislation even as opposition legislators last night voted against the legislation.

Parliament on Wednesday night approved the Home Invasion (Self-Defence and Defence of Property) Bill 2025, commonly known as ‘strand your ground legislation’, with 23 government legislators supporting the measure and 10 opposition members voting against. There were no abstentions. It now goes before the Senate.

In a statement posted on X, Prime Minister Persad -Bissessar said that she was ‘pleased’ with the passage of the bill, noting ‘regrettably – though unsurprisingly – the Opposition voted against this critical legislation, once again failing to put the safety of our people first’.

She said the under the legislation, home invasion now carries a TT$500,000(One TT dollar=US$0.16 cents) fine and 20 years’ imprisonment.

Persad-Bissessar said harsher penalties will be a TT$750,000 fine and 25 years’ imprisonment, which will ‘apply to gang members, organised criminals, or offenders acting in the presence of a child, senior, person with a disability, or other vulnerable individual’.

She said home occupants ‘have no duty to retreat and may use or threaten force to defend themselves or others’ and that ‘deadly force may be justified where there is an honest belief that it is necessary to prevent imminent death, grievous bodily harm, or grievous sexual assault.

‘This law puts the rights of law-abiding citizens first and sends a clear message: attacks on our homes will not be tolerated.’

Minister of Defence and Minister in the Ministry of Homeland Security, Wayne Sturge, told Parliament that it is now firmly embedded in statute ‘that you have no duty to retreat , that you can stand your ground and that the law will not expect you to.wait your exact measure of response and that you are entitled to respond if you honestly believe that you are under attack and that you are entitled to use whatever force that you deem necessary in that situation.

‘Because, obviously, the court is not going to hold you to their own standard, because the court was not in the situation. The court was not there 2.00 am in the morning and would say well he should have done something differently’.

The criminal attorney said that the court will take into account, as this bill recommends, ‘the level of anxiety, the stress that you are under, knowing that your children could be raped, robbed and possibly killed’.

Sturge said ‘this bill seeks to strike fear into the minds and hearts of the bandit. The bandits must know when they come in your house and very soon .the bandits must know that when they come into your house, there will be a chance, a real chance they might not be going out.

‘The bandits must know that it is better and the homeowner mist know, that it is better to be judged by 12 if it comes to that and carried by six. The bandit must know when he comes in with fire power, your fire power will be matched. The bandit must know that the citizen is protected by this law, so that when he goes in he may not come out,’ Sturge said.

Former prime minister Stuart Young, warned about the legislation, recalling an incident where a man reported that a bandit had robbed him of his licenced firearm and cash at home, and although he was traumtised he was unhurt.

‘And to come here.to tell the population that these nine clauses will assist in a home invasion, the hypocrisy and the irony does not escape me and nor will it escape the population.

‘Because the same proposition you are making that if you have a licensed firearm you will be able to handle a home invasion, he failed. We are concerned on this side that in the continued smoke and mirrors that takes place with the other side, this bill must not be looked at in isolation because the promise of firearms to persons who legitimately should and may hold firearms does not fall within the province of the government,’ Young added.

Earlier, Attorney General, John Jeremie had in tabling the legislation, said it is based on a long established maxim that a man’s home is his castle and that the ‘doctrine is that a lawful occupant of a dwelling house has the right to use necessary force, including deadly force against an attack and invader .without retreating from that individual if the occupier reasonably believes that the invader would commit an offence against him or others in the dwelling house.’

But former junior national security minister, Keith Scotland, said that any innocent life ‘taken on a mistaken belief that a person is a criminal or has criminal intent that is a travesty of justice.

‘In this life, it is not a dress rehearsal ..and for that deceased there is no return, there is no jury, there is no opportunity to present his or her defence and what about the person who actually does the act.

Fast bowler Johann Layne bowled impressively to snare three wickets as the West Indies’ two-day warmup match against a New Zealand XI petered out into a tame, predictable draw here at the Bert Sutcliffe Oval on Thursday.

After declaring on their overnight total of 346 for five, the West Indies returned to bowl out their opponents for 264 in 73.4 overs on the last day.

Johann Layne snared three wickets on the final day of their two-day warmup match against a New Zealand XI.

Kemar Roach and Anderson Phillip made early inroads by dismissing Scott Janett and Jesse Frew, respectively, to leave the home side in trouble at four for two.

Layne then got in on the action by having Sam Cassidy caught for 28, as New Zealand XI slipped to 45 for three.

However, a 126-run partnership between Cam Paul, who topscored with 91 and Muhammad Abbas, who made 61, carried them to relative safety.

Layne broke the partnership when he had Abbas caught behind and four balls later, he sent Marco Alpe packing in the same fashion for a duck, as New Zealand XI slipped to 171 for five.

Spinners Kavem Hodge and Jomel Warrican then polished off the tail by snaring two wickets apiece.

Layne finished with 3-33 from his nine overs, while Hodge took 2-32 and Warrican 2-45.