The Trump administration announced its intention to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for more than 350,000 Haitian immigrants, saying they will be eligible for deportation in early February unless they have other legal means to remain in the United States United States.

According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), this is the new instruction in the Federal Register after Secretary Kristi Noem concluded that “Haiti no longer meets the statutory requirements for TPS.”

The decision, which takes effect on February 3, is based on a review by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), other government agencies, and “an analysis indicating that allowing Haitians to remain temporarily in the United States is inconsistent with U.S. national interest.”

While Noem acknowledged the humanitarian and political problems facing crisis-stricken Haiti, including what she called “widespread gang violence,” she said that extending the TPS policy would be at odds with U.S. interests.

“Based on the Department’s review, the Secretary has determined that while the current situation in Haiti is concerning, the United States must prioritize its national interests, and allowing Haitian nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is contrary to the “U.S. national interest,” the official DHS termination notice states. The DHS argued that the TPS policy for Haiti was a magnet for illegal immigration and that continuing the program posed risks to national and public security. It cited concerns about its ability to properly investigate Haitian migrants and cases of some Haitian TPS beneficiaries involved in immigration fraud or national security investigations. The TPS program for Haiti will expire on February 3, and the termination is expected to affect 352,959 beneficiaries, the DHS said in its notice.Trump administration officials have urged TPS beneficiaries whose status is about to expire to self-deport or face the possibility of being detained and forcibly removed from the United States. TPS allows beneficiaries to work and live in the United States without fear of deportation during periods established by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). This humanitarian program was created by Congress in 1990 to allow governments to grant temporary refuge to foreigners from countries facing armed conflict, environmental disasters, or other emergencies. The Biden administration significantly expanded the TPS policy, offering protection to hundreds of thousands of recent arrivals from Afghanistan, Haiti, Ukraine, Venezuela, and other countries. As part of its government-level immigration offensive, the second Trump administration sought to dismantle most TPS programs, revoking or attempting to revoke legal protections for hundreds of thousands of Afghans, Burmese, Cameroonians, Haitians, Hondurans, Nepalese, Nicaraguans, Syrians, Sudanese, and Venezuelans.