A major deadline looms for South Florida’s Haitian community, the Caribbean nation’s largest diaspora in the U.S.
The big picture: More than 330,000 Haitians nationwide may lose their legal status Tuesday as the federal government moves to terminate their Temporary Protected Status.
- Advocates say the expiration of TPS will fracture families and disrupt the health care industry, where many TPS holders work.
Zoom in: Catholic Health Services — which offers assisted living care and other services at four medical centers across South Florida — says 44 of its employees are TPS holders.
- Brian Kiedrowski, of Catholic Health Services, said at a recent news conference that the end of TPS would impact patient care.
- “If TPS ends, while we will be losing our essential caregivers, it is actually our patients — the frail, the aging, the vulnerable — who will feel the loss most.”
- Meanwhile, a senior care center in Boca Raton expects to lose 30 employees with TPS, the center’s chief executive told the New York Times.
What they’re saying: Community leaders — from Archbishop Thomas Wenski to Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava — urged the Trump administration to extend deportation protections for Haitians living here.
- “We should not force Haitians back into a crisis back in Haiti, nor should we create another crisis here because we are forcing them out of their jobs,” Wenski said.
State of play: TPS allows foreign nationals to temporarily work and live in the U.S. if the government determines that their home countries are not safe or cannot handle their return.
- The protection, meant for countries impacted by armed conflict or natural disaster, has been regularly renewed for Haitians since they received it after the 2010 earthquake killed more than 220,000 people.
But conditions on the island are even worse now, advocates say.
- The Miami Herald reports that gangs control a majority of the country’s capital, and more than 1.4 million Haitians have been internally displaced from their homes this year.
- The United Nations says more than 8,100 killings were documented in Haiti between January and November of 2025.
The other side: A federal notice announcing the termination of TPS for Haitians states that Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem “has determined that while the current situation in Haiti is concerning, the United States must prioritize its national interests.”…