IT would seem now that the pleas for hard-pressed Haitians taking refuge in the United States have fallen upon deaf ears as the Trump Administration says it is going ahead with ending legal protections for about 500,000 Haitians, setting them up for potential deportation effective September 2, 2025.

The Department of Homeland Secretary (DHS) said on Friday that conditions in that ill-fated country had improved and Haitians “no longer meet the conditions” for the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) under which the Haitians are already in the US, some for more than a decade.

TPS allows people already in the US to stay and work legally if their homelands are deemed unsafe. Immigrants from 17 countries, including Haiti, were receiving those protections before President Donald Trump took office for his second term in January.

The Trump Administration has also revoked legal protections for thousands of Haitians who arrived legally in the country under a humanitarian parole programme, and the US Supreme Court set aside a federal judge’s order to stop the revocation.

We in this space are among the many who have begged the US Administration to spare the Haitians because of the dire situation facing them in that impoverished, violence-torn, French-speaking country.

We have argued that the US recently took in some white South Africans under speedily created refugee status, saying they were being racially targeted in their country, pointing out that the difference between the situation facing the Haitians and the Afrikaners could not be more stark.

It is obviously a matter of perspective, but we do not see how the DHS spokesperson could say, “The environmental situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home.”

Only two days before reiterating its decision to end TPS, the US Department of State renewed its travel advisory on Haiti, telling Americans “do not travel to Haiti due to kidnapping, crime, civil unrest, and limited health care”.

“If you are a US citizen in Haiti, depart Haiti as soon as possible by commercial or other privately available transportation options… and avoid areas where violence, demonstrations or disruptions are reported to be happening,” the US Embassy in the capital urged.

The embassy also advised Americans in Haiti to keep a low profile, and said they should be “prepared to shelter in place for an extended time period”, and avoid being out after dark.

Latest reports from the International Organization for Migration said gang violence has displaced 1.3 million people across Haiti, with gunmen having chased 11 per cent of Haiti’s nearly 12 million inhabitants from their homes.

The Associated Press quoted Tessa Pettit, a Haitian-American who is executive director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition, as saying: “Deporting people back to these conditions is a death sentence for many…”

Last week, the United Nations said the powerful gangs that control much of Haiti are increasingly ruthless, better armed despite a weapons embargo, and “continue to have free rein to conduct attacks with impunity and expand their territorial control”.

Some of the Haitians who benefit from TPS have requested asylum or other lawful immigration status that could protect them from deportation. We strenuously hope and pray for their success.