People wait outside a driver license office for their appointments on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026, in Hialeah Gardens, Fla. As of Feb. 6, 2026, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles requires all driver license knowledge and skills examinations to be conducted exclusively in English.
Photo by Matias J. Ocner
mocner@miamiherald.com
Haitians in Florida with Temporary Protected Status can continue renewing their driver licenses, Miami-Dade County said, citing updated state guidance.
But the directive only applies until March 15 or when a court makes a decision in the ongoing appeal process filed by the Trump administration following the decision by a federal judge earlier this month to halt the end of the protections. TPS has allowed more than 300,000 Haitians to live and work in the United States on a temporary basis due to ongoing political, security and humanitarian crisis in their homeland.
The Miami-Dade County Tax Collector’s Office said it is assisting eligible residents in accordance with a directive from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Individuals with TPS or a pending application and present an expired Employment Authorization Document will remain eligible for a driver’s license through March 15. Those seeking issuance beyond that date must provide alternative proof of lawful presence, consistent with the advisory.
Immigration advocates warn that Haitians should check their state’s requirements and in some cases may need to seek other alternatives to driving like public transportation or carpooling to avoid a traffic infraction and possible detention by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The guidance follows a ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Ana C. Reyes, who earlier this moth temporarily halted the federal government’s efforts to end TPS after five Haitian nationals sued the Department of Homeland Security. DHS asked Reyes to lift her order, and last week she declined while also ordering the administration to update its systems so that Haitians with driver’s licenses can remain eligible to drive.
In addition to appealing to Reyes herself, DHS has also filed a separate appeal in the case, Miot et al vs. Trump, now before a federal appellate court.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs have submitted briefs supporting Haitian TPS holders from the AFL-CIO and 10 affiliated labor unions as well as from 17 states and the District of Columbia. Among the roughly 50,000 TPS holders who work in healthcare, many are employed in Massachusetts, where “40% of the front-line staff in nursing homes are foreign born, many from Haiti,” lawyers wrote.
Massachusetts, boasts the third-largest population of Haitians in the U.S. after Florida and New York. The other states that have joined the brief are California, New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Main, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and the District of Columbia.
The states, led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, argue that stripping Haitians of TPS would harm their economies, which would likely face a wave of mortgage foreclosures, decline in tax revenues and souring of their economies.
In the court filing, they said TPS-eligible Haitians contribute $3.4 billion annually to the U.S. economy; 14.5% of TPS holders are entrepreneurs, compared with 9.3% of the U.S.-born workforce, and TPS holders pay taxes “on property having a total value of $19 billion.”
They also noted that TPS holders from all countries, including Haiti, paid $3.1 billion in federal taxes and $2.1 billion in state and local taxes.
Jacqueline Charles has reported on Haiti and the English-speaking Caribbean for the Miami Herald for over a decade. A Pulitzer Prize finalist for her coverage of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, she was awarded a 2018 Maria Moors Cabot Prize — the most prestigious award for coverage of the Americas.
The official Olympic Team uniform for Team Haiti for the Milan Cortina Winter Games.
Courtesy of Stella Jean
When Haiti’s two-person Olympic team files into the stadium on Friday for the opening ceremony of the Milan Cortina Winter Games, Italian-Haitian designer Stella Jean hopes the scene will highlight not the rarity of the moment, rather the Caribbean nation’s cultural identity and perseverance.
Jean, who designed Haiti’s uniforms for the 2024 Paris Games, now part of the Olympic Museum’s collection, has once more drawn inspiration from Haitian artistry and history to inspire its athletes and tell another chapter of its story.
This time, her muse was a painting by Miami-based Haitian artist Edouard Duval-Carrié depicting the revolutionary hero Toussaint Louverture on horseback, charging into battle. The horse is red and in Toussaint’s hand, a sword transformed into a snake. In Vodou tradition, the snake symbolizes Danbala, the great spirit of wisdom, peace and purity.
The mixed-media portrait was painted more than 20 years ago, and among many Duval-Carrié has done of the leader. But this one, “is the very symbol of the Haitian spirit,” Jean said in an interview with the Miami Herald shortly after arriving in Milan.
“Even the preparation of this uniform,” she added.
Redesign amid the Olympic rules
Jean spent nearly a year working on the uniforms, only to be told last month that the image of Haiti’s founding father violated the International Olympic Committee rules prohibiting political, religious or racial propaganda at Olympic venues and on uniforms.
“Two hundred years later?” Duval-Carrié quipped, reacting to the decision. “It’s amazing that Toussaint would represent a political statement.”
Nevertheless, the IOC’s objection set off a brief panic—and a creative scramble—as Jean faced a tight deadline, no budget and the challenge of preserving her message without diluting Haiti’s history.
“For 24 hours, I said, ‘It’s over; they won’t have any uniform,’” she said. “But then I also thought that what brought us here was Haitian art, Haitian culture, Haitian excellence. So many human factors that helped us to be there.”
The official uniform for Team Haiti for the Olympic Games had to be redesigned to remove the figure of Toussaint Louverture. Courtesy of Stella Jean
Refusing to accept defeat, the designer, who was working for free, enlisted the help of some Italian artisans who she worked with on her own collection that merges Italian tailoring with bold, colorful patterns celebrating Haitian and African cultural themes.
“Five days ago, they started to [hand] paint all the uniforms, and yesterday night I brought them myself in Milan from the other regions,” she said on Thursday.
Her team is accustomed to painting on natural fabrics, she said. But the Olympic uniforms are made of synthetic material.
“I just pray that it doesn’t rain,” she laughed.
Gone is the figure of Toussaint, but his red horse remains, charging against a lush tropical background. The word “Haiti” is emblazoned across the back against a blue sky on the tops.
“This painting has the two colors of the flag, red and blue,” Jean said. “You can immediately recognize it.”
For the rest of the delegation, including trainers and support staff, she has also designed a turban-like head wrap inspired by the tignon that emerged after the French colonizers forced enslaved African women to cover their hair, to appease their jealous wives, in what was then known as Saint-Domingue, France’s richest colony. The head wrap later became its own fashion statement, along with the skirts with pockets that Jean also designed to pay homage to the outfits worn by Haiti’s street market vendors.
“Every single piece in this uniform has a specific historical meaning for it,” she said.
Inspired by history
For the athletes, Jean could have chosen not just from any number of Haitian masters, but also from many of Duval-Carrié’s works drawn from Haitian history. She selected Toussaint and his red horse, she said, because they symbolize pride and perseverance.
Though Haitians have different views on many of the figures in the country’s revolution to become the world’s first Black republic in 1804, Jean said, “we all agree on Toussaint Louverture.”
A former slave who became a skilled military strategist, Toussaint is remembered as a symbol of resistance. He once controlled the entire island of Hispaniola, including the part that’s now the Dominican Republic, before being captured by French forces, and imprisoned in the cold Fort de Joux in France, where he died in 1803.
The uniform that women of the Haitian delegation at the Olympic Games opening ceremony was designed by Italian-Haitian designer Stella Jean. Courtesy of Stella Jean
Duval-Carrié said he thought “it was a bit cheeky of the Olympic Committee,” to want Toussaint erased because someone might be offended. Still, any visibility for Haiti on a global stage was valuable, said the artist, who in May will represent his homeland at the Venice Biennale.
Though the two artists do not know each other personally, Duval-Carrié said he sees an affinity in Jean, whom he called “a force in the design world.”
“I commend her for her being steadfastly supportive of anything Haiti,” he said of Jean, whose 2024 Olympic designs drew inspiration from another Haitian artist, Philippe Dodard of Port-au-Prince.
Haiti’s skiers at the Winter Games
The two athletes representing Haiti in the Winter Olympics are both skiers, who grew up outside the country with adoptive families.
Richardson Viano, 23, is Haiti’s first Winter Olympian, having competed at the 2022 Beijing Games, finishing 34th in the men’s slalom. Savart, 25, is a cross-country skier.
Both are part of the small ski federation created in the wake of the devastating 2010 earthquake.
The opening ceremony will be brief, and Haiti’s delegation—one of the smallest at the Games—is expected to appear for no more than 10 seconds. But those seconds carry weight, Jean said, particularly at a moment when Haiti is grappling with escalating gang violence, political paralysis and foreign military presence.
Earlier this week, one of the few remaining sports facilities available to children in the country was vandalized and partially burned by criminal gangs.
“We will have just 10 seconds, maybe nine,” Jean said, “in which these two athletes will become with their bodies the Haitian flag. We have to say everything without words, just with images, to the world.”
That message, she said, is that amid the depleted resources, environmental degradation, and prolonged instability, Haiti still has something to offer the world.
“The one thing Haiti can always export,” Jean said, “is our art, our culture and our creativity.”
Jacqueline Charles has reported on Haiti and the English-speaking Caribbean for the Miami Herald for over a decade. A Pulitzer Prize finalist for her coverage of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, she was awarded a 2018 Maria Moors Cabot Prize — the most prestigious award for coverage of the Americas.
A federal judge on Monday blocked the Trump administration from revoking legal protections for Haitians enrolled in the Temporary Protected Status program, granting a last-minute reprieve to 350,000 immigrants who were set to lose their deportation protections on Tuesday.
U.S. District Court Judge Ana Reyes indefinitely paused the planned termination of Haiti’s TPS program, explicitly barring the federal government from invalidating the legal status and work permits of active enrollees and from arresting and deporting them.
In an opinion accompanying her order, Reyes issued a forceful rebuke of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s decision to end the TPS policy for Haitians.
Reyes concluded Noem’s decision was “arbitrary and capricious” and in violation of the Administrative Procedures Act, writing that it failed to fully consider “overwhelming evidence of present danger” in crisis-stricken Haiti, which remains plagued by political instability, gang violence and widespread poverty.
Reyes also found Noem’s decision was “in part” rooted in “racial animus,” citing disparaging remarks that the secretary and President Trump have made about Haiti and immigrants.
“Kristi Noem has a First Amendment right to call immigrants killers, leeches, entitlement junkies, and any other inapt name she wants,” Reyes wrote. “Secretary Noem, however, is constrained by both our Constitution and the APA to apply faithfully the facts to the law in implementing the TPS program. The record to-date shows she has yet to do that.”
In a statement, Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin suggested the Trump administration would ask the Supreme Court to intervene in the case.
“Supreme Court, here we come,” she said. “This is lawless activism that we will be vindicated on.”
“Haiti’s TPS was granted following an earthquake that took place over 15 years ago, it was never intended to be a de facto amnesty program, yet that’s how previous administrations have used it for decades,” McLaughlin added.
TPS was created by Congress in 1990. Since then, Democratic and Republican administrations have used the policy to provide temporary legal refuge to foreigners from countries facing armed conflict, an environmental disaster or another emergency that makes their return unsafe.
The Trump administration has moved to dismantle most TPS programs, raising the specter of deportation for hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Honduras, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria and Venezuela.
The Trump administration argues these programs attract illegal immigration and that they have been abused and extended for too long by Democratic administrations.
Attendees react during a press conference, candlelight vigil, and interfaith prayer at Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport as airport workers and faith leaders callied on the Trump Administration to extend Temporary Protected Status for Haiti, on Jan. 28, 2026.
PHOTO BY AL DIAZ
adiaz@miamiherald.com
For more than a decade, Temporary Protected Status has allowed Marie to live and work legally in the United States. On Tuesday, that protection is set to end — even as she juggles a $2,896-a-month mortgage, raises two U.S.-born children, and drives two hours each way to her job at a South Florida casino.
“Everything depends on being able to work,” said the single mother, who asked to be identified only as Marie for fear of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on South Florida’s streets and highways.
Marie is among more than 300,000 Haitians whose TPS benefit is set to expire, a move by the Trump administration that immigration and Haitian advocates say ignores the reality of their crisis-wracked homeland, threatens to upend families and will send local economies into a tailspin.
Thousands of long-time residents who have paid taxes, and in some cases bought homes and raised U.S.-citizen children, now find themselves forced into an impossible choice: remain in the U.S. without legal authorization or return to a country many say they can no longer safely live in.
Florida hosts the largest concentration of Haitian TPS holders, estimated at a total of 158,000 with at least 93,000 in the workforce, according to an analysis by the policy organization FWD.us. Among them are 12,000 Florida homeowners like Marie out of an estimated 63,000 nationwide, according to Tessa Petit, the executive director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition. The group has been advocating for an extension of TPS.
“I don’t know if I will drown or get a lifeline,” Marie said, explaining her sense of helplessness. “I am at a very difficult period. I can say I am going to sell the house, but I don’t know who would buy it. And if I say I’m returning to Haiti, where am I going back to? I don’t have a home to go to. I don’t have anyone to receive me.”
She worries constantly about her kids, ages 16 and 7, both born in the U.S.
“I don’t have anyone to keep them,” she said. The oldest was born during the year she traveled back and forth to Haiti buying goods for resale before the 2010 earthquake pushed her to migrate.
Immigration attorneys and advocates argue that the Trump administration’s decision to terminate the TPS designation for Haitians ignores the conditions in their homeland, including escalating gang violence that led to more than 8,000 deaths and 8,100 documented cases of sexual assaults last year.
Significant impact
Petit said if Haitian TPS holders were removed from Florida, it would lead to the loss of billions of dollars in federal, state and local taxes they currently pay.
“We are significant contributors to Florida’s many industries, including construction but particularly hospitality and restaurants,” she said. Haitians on TPS also own homes with a combined value of $19 billion nationwide, she said.
“We are not a threat to the United States. We deserve protection. We deserve to be here,” Petit said.
The impending end of TPS, she and others say, has created widespread fear and anxiety in the Haitian community because it means “sending hundreds of thousands of people to their deaths.”
Marie says she bought her house three years ago because purchasing made more sense than renting. At the time, the environment for Haitians wasn’t what it is now. Immigration reform was being debated in Congress, fueling hope that immigrants like her might finally get a pathway to legal residency. ICE raids were less aggressive, and TPS, first given in 2010 to Haiti after the quake, was being renewed every 18 months.
But that sense of security began changing both with Trump’s election and the notices she began receiving in December from her employer asking if she had her new work permit. “I told them I don’t have a new permit,” she said.
“It’s pressure,” Marie, who also has a monthly car payment, said. “That’s what we’re living under.”
‘We did not come here to be a burden’
For Marlene, a cleaner at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, the pressure became so unbearable that she stopped driving months ago, she said.
“Every time I see a police car, I go into a panic; my heart starts beating rapidly,” she said. Overwhelmed by fear, she worries when her two adult children are outside the home.
“There are some situations that you are living, and you think to yourself you’re better off dead than living them. You don’t know where to turn, you don’t know what prayer to send up,” she said.
Arguing that TPS for Haitians should end, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has said Haiti is safe for its nationals to return to. But the administration has also sought to paint Haitians as being a drain on the U.S. economy and overly dependent on government welfare services.
The image and the rhetoric are not only unfair but untrue, said Marlene.
“We have TPS, but we did not come here to be a burden on the government,” she said. “We accepted work that people in our country would call ‘humiliating’ — work not everyone here would do. As Haitians, we know why we are doing it, because we can’t return home.”
Before leaving Haiti, she was a professional with a good job and a comfortable life.
“My country pushed me out with all of my family,” she said. “God gave us the opportunity to arrive here, and we installed ourselves; we put down roots. We accepted all the humiliating conditions, and accepted work we would have not done back home so that we could live.”
Over the years she built a life in the United States, sending her two children to trade school — her son to become a dental hygienist, her daughter an electrician. Four years ago, the family bought a house with a mortgage of nearly $2,600 a month. All four family members, including her children, ages 30 and 32, and husband, are on TPS.
“They wanted to go to school, and I supported them,” she said. “My husband kept a roof over our heads and I paid their schooling. We are a family who respect the law; everything it tells us not to do we don’t do, and what it says we should, we do it. For example, paying taxes. We contribute in the country.”
Now, she says, she doesn’t know what to do or where to turn.
“I am breathing,” she said, “but I am not living.”
Uncharted territory
Advocates say Haitian immigrants have long complied with the law, paid taxes and contributed economically, and warn that the loss of TPS will reverberate across families and communities.
“There’s just no reason, no good policy anyone that anyone can provide for this happening,” said Helene O’Brien, Florida state director for 32BJ SEIU, a national union that represents service workers like custodians, security officers, doormen and maintenance staff.
The union, along with groups including the American Business Immigration Coalition Action, is backing a petition to attempt to force a vote in Congress aimed at protecting Haitians from losing their temporary protections. The measure requires 218 votes, which means all Democrats plus at least four Republicans would need to vote in favor.
“It’s an extreme long shot,” O’Brien acknowledged. “But it’s something.”
Congress, she said, is supposed to be a place where people turn to. “I’m not giving up,” she said. “We have a democracy. We’re going to use every lever we can to fight for good policy and fight for America, and America includes immigrants, these immigrants. So that’s all I can do.”
She said advocates and immigrants alike are navigating uncharted territory.
“We have no idea, really what to expect in America, day by day right now,” she said. “So we have to lean in and fight.”
That fight includes a recent vigil at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport, press events and conversations aimed at helping the broader public understand the plight of Haitian immigrants whose lives are in limbo.
“It’s a tragedy of human life,” said O’Brien. “Until someone sees someone they can identify with, nothing seems real to people. It’s a terrible aspect of human nature.”
Holding onto faith
Wood, 32, a college professor and personal chef who has lived in South Florida since the 2010 earthquake, said she understands that reality all too well. She has spent more than $10,000 on legal fees trying to apply for a special visa based on her culinary skills, reaching out for support to former clients, including celebrities.
When responses came too late — or not at all — Wood, who asked that her full name not be used, missed the deadline and was forced to halt her attempt to apply for a special immigration-skills visa before Tuesday.
“It’s scary. Some days I feel very numb. I don’t even know what to think, how to feel when I think about it. We’re talking about my whole life here,” Wood said. “I get very frustrated thinking about the situation very much so, but at the same time, I have to face reality.”
A Broward County high school graduate with a business degree and culinary training, Wood teaches at a local college. Last week, she said, the school’s human resources department called her and nine other Haitian TPS holders in, and then cut off her system access even though the TPS expiration date had not yet arrived.
“People ask, ‘Why don’t you try something else?’” she said. “It’s not that simple. There aren’t a thousand other options for us. This situation is very complex.”
Still, she is holding onto her faith.
“I firmly believe that the God that I serve, my God, will do something else. There will be a turnaround. This is my belief,” she said. “However, if we’re looking at it on the human side of what’s happening, it’s madness.”
Jacqueline Charles has reported on Haiti and the English-speaking Caribbean for the Miami Herald for over a decade. A Pulitzer Prize finalist for her coverage of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, she was awarded a 2018 Maria Moors Cabot Prize — the most prestigious award for coverage of the Americas.
A federal appeals court ruled late Wednesday that the Trump administration acted illegally when it ended legal protections that gave hundreds of thousands of people from Venezuela permission to live and work in the United States.A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that found Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem exceeded her authority when she ended temporary protected status for Venezuelans.The decision, however, will not have any immediate practical effect after the U.S. Supreme Court in October allowed Noem’s decision to take effect pending a final decision by the justices.An email late Wednesday night to the Department of Homeland Security was not immediately returned.The 9th Circuit panel also upheld the lower court’s finding that Noem exceeded her authority when she decided to end TPS early for hundreds of thousands of people from Haiti.A federal judge in Washington is expected to rule any day now on a request to pause the termination of TPS for Haiti while a separate lawsuit challenging it proceeds. The country’s TPS designation is scheduled to end on Feb. 3.Ninth Circuit Judges Kim Wardlaw, Salvador Mendoza, Jr. and Anthony Johnstone said in Wednesday’s ruling that the TPS legislation passed by Congress did not give the secretary the power to vacate an existing TPS designation. All three judges were nominated by Democratic presidents.“The statute contains numerous procedural safeguards that ensure individuals with TPS enjoy predictability and stability during periods of extraordinary and temporary conditions in their home country,” Judge Kim Wardlaw, who was nominated by President Bill Clinton, wrote for the panel.Wardlaw said Noem’s “unlawful actions have had real and significant consequences” for Venezuelans and Haitians in the United States who rely on TPS.“The record is replete with examples of hard-working, contributing members of society — who are mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, and partners of U.S. citizens, pay taxes, and have no criminal records — who have been deported or detained after losing their TPS,” she wrote.Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, authorized by Congress as part of the Immigration Act of 1990, allows the Homeland Security secretary to grant legal immigration status to people fleeing countries experiencing civil strife, environmental disaster or other “extraordinary and temporary conditions” that prevent a safe return to that home country.Designations are granted for terms of six, 12 or 18 months, and extensions can be granted so long as conditions remain dire. The status prevents holders from being deported and allows them to work, but it does not give them a path to citizenship.In ending the protections, Noem said that conditions in both Haiti and Venezuela had improved and that it was not in the national interest to allow immigrants from the two countries to stay on for what is a temporary program.Millions of Venezuelans have fled political unrest, mass unemployment and hunger. The country is mired in a prolonged crisis brought on by years of hyperinflation, political corruption, economic mismanagement and an ineffectual government.Haiti was first designated for TPS in 2010 after a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 earthquake killed and wounded hundreds of thousands of people, and left more than 1 million homeless. Haitians face widespread hunger and gang violence.Mendoza wrote separately that there was “ample evidence of racial and national origin animus” that reinforced the lower court’s conclusion that Noem’s decisions were “preordained and her reasoning pretextual.”“It is clear that the Secretary’s vacatur actions were not actually grounded in substantive policy considerations or genuine differences with respect to the prior administration’s TPS procedures, but were instead rooted in a stereotype-based diagnosis of immigrants from Venezuela and Haiti as dangerous criminals or mentally unwell,” he wrote.Attorneys for the government have argued the secretary has clear and broad authority to make determinations related to the TPS program and those decisions are not subject to judicial review. They have also denied that her actions were motived by racial animus.
A federal appeals court ruled late Wednesday that the Trump administration acted illegally when it ended legal protections that gave hundreds of thousands of people from Venezuela permission to live and work in the United States.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that found Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem exceeded her authority when she ended temporary protected status for Venezuelans.
The decision, however, will not have any immediate practical effect after the U.S. Supreme Court in October allowed Noem’s decision to take effect pending a final decision by the justices.
An email late Wednesday night to the Department of Homeland Security was not immediately returned.
The 9th Circuit panel also upheld the lower court’s finding that Noem exceeded her authority when she decided to end TPS early for hundreds of thousands of people from Haiti.
A federal judge in Washington is expected to rule any day now on a request to pause the termination of TPS for Haiti while a separate lawsuit challenging it proceeds. The country’s TPS designation is scheduled to end on Feb. 3.
Ninth Circuit Judges Kim Wardlaw, Salvador Mendoza, Jr. and Anthony Johnstone said in Wednesday’s ruling that the TPS legislation passed by Congress did not give the secretary the power to vacate an existing TPS designation. All three judges were nominated by Democratic presidents.
“The statute contains numerous procedural safeguards that ensure individuals with TPS enjoy predictability and stability during periods of extraordinary and temporary conditions in their home country,” Judge Kim Wardlaw, who was nominated by President Bill Clinton, wrote for the panel.
Wardlaw said Noem’s “unlawful actions have had real and significant consequences” for Venezuelans and Haitians in the United States who rely on TPS.
“The record is replete with examples of hard-working, contributing members of society — who are mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, and partners of U.S. citizens, pay taxes, and have no criminal records — who have been deported or detained after losing their TPS,” she wrote.
Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, authorized by Congress as part of the Immigration Act of 1990, allows the Homeland Security secretary to grant legal immigration status to people fleeing countries experiencing civil strife, environmental disaster or other “extraordinary and temporary conditions” that prevent a safe return to that home country.
Designations are granted for terms of six, 12 or 18 months, and extensions can be granted so long as conditions remain dire. The status prevents holders from being deported and allows them to work, but it does not give them a path to citizenship.
In ending the protections, Noem said that conditions in both Haiti and Venezuela had improved and that it was not in the national interest to allow immigrants from the two countries to stay on for what is a temporary program.
Millions of Venezuelans have fled political unrest, mass unemployment and hunger. The country is mired in a prolonged crisis brought on by years of hyperinflation, political corruption, economic mismanagement and an ineffectual government.
Haiti was first designated for TPS in 2010 after a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 earthquake killed and wounded hundreds of thousands of people, and left more than 1 million homeless. Haitians face widespread hunger and gang violence.
Mendoza wrote separately that there was “ample evidence of racial and national origin animus” that reinforced the lower court’s conclusion that Noem’s decisions were “preordained and her reasoning pretextual.”
“It is clear that the Secretary’s vacatur actions were not actually grounded in substantive policy considerations or genuine differences with respect to the prior administration’s TPS procedures, but were instead rooted in a stereotype-based diagnosis of immigrants from Venezuela and Haiti as dangerous criminals or mentally unwell,” he wrote.
Attorneys for the government have argued the secretary has clear and broad authority to make determinations related to the TPS program and those decisions are not subject to judicial review. They have also denied that her actions were motived by racial animus.
BOSTON, Jan 25 (Reuters) – A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s push to terminate the legal status of more than 8,400 family members of U.S. citizens and green card holders who moved to the United States from seven Latin American countries.
Boston-based U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani issued a preliminary injunction late on Saturday that prevents the Department of Homeland Security from ending the humanitarian parole granted to thousands of people from Cuba, Haiti, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
They had been allowed to move to the United States under family reunification parole programs that were created or modernized by Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration.
Since Republican President Donald Trump succeeded Biden, his administration has ramped up immigration enforcement with $170 billion budgeted for immigration agencies through September 2029, a historic sum.
Under the family reunification programs, U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents, also known as green card holders, could apply to serve as sponsors for family members in those seven countries, letting them live in the U.S. while they waited for their immigrant visas to become available.
The Homeland Security Department said on December 12 it was ending the programs on the grounds that they were inconsistent with Trump’s immigration enforcement priorities and were abused to allow “poorly vetted aliens to circumvent the traditional parole process.”
The termination was originally set to take effect January 14, but Talwani issued a temporary restraining order blocking it for 14 days while she considered whether to issue Saturday’s longer-term injunction.
Talwani said the department, led by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, had provided no support for its fraud concerns or considered whether individuals could feasibly return to their home countries, where many had sold homes or left jobs.
“The Secretary could not provide a reasoned explanation of the agency’s change in policy without acknowledging these interests,” wrote Talwani, who was appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama. “Accordingly, failure to do so was arbitrary and capricious.”
The department did not respond to a request for comment.
The ruling came in a class action lawsuit pursued by immigrant rights advocates challenging the administration’s broader rollback of temporary parole granted to hundreds of thousands of migrants.
Talwani earlier in that case blocked the administration from ending grants of parole to about 430,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, but the Supreme Court lifted her order, which an appeals court later overturned.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston;Editing by Helen Popper)
Terrance Drew, prime minister of Saint Kitts and Nevis
ISSAM AHMED
AFP via Getty Images
Two more Caribbean countries have entered into agreements with the Trump administration to accept asylum seekers deported from the United States, with one leader explicitly saying Haitians are not welcome.
St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Terrance Drew said that his government has agreed to accept a very small number of third-country nationals from the U.S. as long as they are citizens of the 15-member Caribbean Community known as CARICOM, and are not sexual predators, have no violent backgrounds and are not Haitians
“This does not involve anybody outside of CARICOM,” Drew said at a news conference late last week. “This is in keeping with our character. And I will further say that because of security matters, it does not include Haiti at this time.” He reiterated Haiti’s exclusion at three separate points during the briefing.
The exclusion of Haitian nationals marks the first public acknowledgment by a CARICOM member state that it has placed explicit limits on accepting nationals from Haiti, which is a member of the bloc of mostly former British colonies, in their negotiations with Washington. Though Caribbean governments are known for their exclusions of Haitians and even rejections once they arrive on their shores, what makes the latest development surprising is that Drew is currently the chairman of the regional bloc.
On Monday, seemingly addressing the firestorm over the agreement with the U.S. and Haiti’s exclusion, he said “in approaching diplomacy, one has to evaluate very carefully what are the risks and benefits.
“My first objective always, is to protect St. Kitts and Nevis, and our people” he added. “Any decision that is made is made with that in mind.”
Prime Minister Dr. Terrance Drew has confirmed that St. Kitts and Nevis has reached an agreement with the United States to accept a very small number of third-country nationals who are citizens of CARICOM member states. Haiti is excluded due to security considerations, pic.twitter.com/F7fGDBByb9
Drew has acknowledged that Caribbean countries are agreeing to accept their own nationals. This raises questions about the scope and substance of the island-nation’s third-party arrangement, which the United States has been aggressively pursuing across the region to expand destinations for asylum seekers and refugees kicked out of the U.S. who cannot return to their countries of origin.
Third-party agreements
So far, six CARICOM countries — Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Dominica, Guyana, St. Kitts and Nevis and St. Lucia — have announced that they have entered into an arrangement with Washington to accept migrants.
On Sunday, St Lucia’s recently re-elected prime minister, Philip J. Pierre, confirmed that his government had signed “a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding” with the U.S. to potentially accept certain “third country nationals” deported by the Trump Administration.
“We believe that stability is best secured through dialogue, diplomacy and respect for established international norms,” Pierre said during a national address announcing the decision. “We’ll continue to work with our regional partners to safeguard the Caribbean as a zone of peace. St. Lucia’s foreign policy remains rooted in diplomacy, cooperation and mutually beneficial shared interests.”
St. Lucia, Antigua, Dominica and St. Kitts, in addition to being in the eastern Caribbean, all have Citizenship by Investment programs, which allow foreigners to acquire citizenship with investments ranging from $100,000 to $250,000. The program has come under fire from the Trump administration, which has used its concerns over a lack of vetting and transparency as leverage with Caribbean governments.
In December, both Antigua and Dominica were added to a list of countries under a partial U.S. travel ban after Trump issued an executive order, citing their CBI programs.
All the Caribbean countries have negotiated their own conditions for accepting refugees deported from the U.S. who cannot return to their countries of origin., but only Antigua has publicly detailed the parameters governing its agreement with the U.S.
According to a letter Antigua’s government wrote to senior State Department official Michael Kozak, the Caribbean country says it will only consider taking in designated refugees under U.S. law or registered asylum seekers with pending, non-frivolous applications recognized by U.S. authorities who have no criminal convictions other than immigration-status offenses; have no pending criminal charges; are not subject to sex-offender registration; are not on terrorism, organized-crime, or sanctions lists; and are not otherwise excludable on security grounds. Individuals also must possess a certified skill or professional license recognized by the relevant regulatory authorities of Antigua and Barbuda; and have at least basic working proficiency in English.
There is no mention of nationality in the lette. Status will be granted for no more than 24 months unless mutual consent is given for an extension. “If the transferee and immediate family have not achieved self-sufficiency by the end of twenty-four months, Antigua and Barbuda may request their return. The United States shall accept such return and arrange transport within thirty days, securing all travel documents and covering all costs,” the letter said.
Questions about Haiti’s place
Other countries have yet to provide details of their agreement. But so far, only St. Kitts and Nevis, a country with a population of about 46,000 people, has publicly confirmed the exclusion of Haitians, reviving longstanding questions about Haiti’s place within CARICOM.
Neither Haiti’s foreign minister nor the prime minister’s office responded to Miami Herald requests for comment. The decision has prompted debate online over what critics describe as moral contradictions in a region that often positions itself as Haiti’s advocate — the bloc is currently leading discussions about the country’s political transition after Feb. 7 — while excluding the French-speaking country from the practical implementation of regional policies. CARICOM’s Single Market and Economy, which allows for the free movement of goods and services, excludes Haiti, while member states continue to deny Haitian nationals visa-free travel to their countries.
Peterson Benjamin Noel, a former Haitian ambassador to CARICOM, said many member states, including St. Kitts and Nevis, remain reluctant to accept Haitian nationals, viewing them as a form of “silent invasion.” That apprehension, he said, is particularly evident in The Bahamas, the CARICOM country with the largest population of people of Haitian descent, which has declined to join the Single Market and Economy largely because of concerns over the free movement of people.
As a result, Noel said, Haiti is often treated less as an equal partner in regional integration than as a vehicle through which CARICOM can project influence internationally.
“Haiti’s integration is framed more as a symbolic or strategic necessity than as a genuinely inclusive process,” he said.
He added that there exists “an implicit and often unspoken regional consensus regarding Haiti—one that shapes policy positions while remaining largely absent from formal discourse.”
Jacqueline Charles has reported on Haiti and the English-speaking Caribbean for the Miami Herald for over a decade. A Pulitzer Prize finalist for her coverage of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, she was awarded a 2018 Maria Moors Cabot Prize — the most prestigious award for coverage of the Americas.
A 14-year-old armed gang member patrols the streets in the Mariani neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on October 6, 2025. Mariani is near the Route Nationale 2, parts of which have been taken over by gangs.
CLARENS SIFFROY
AFP via Getty Images
As the United States prepares to bolster Haiti’s fight against increasingly brutal armed gangs, a new report is urging officials and mission planners to heed the lessons of the recent Kenya-led security mission and warns that suppressing gangs cannot be reduced solely to killing their members.
Previous efforts in Haiti, the International Crisis Group says in a new 49-page report, have shown that arresting gang leaders and targeting foot soldiers can bring short-term calm. But violence is likely to return unless the groups are fully disarmed and their political and financial backers are held accountable.
“Achieving armed supremacy over gangs would mark a huge breakthrough for Haiti, but unless more is done to dismantle these groups, halt their recruitment and sever their links to power, it would amount to little more than a pause in the battle,” Diego Da Rin, Crisis Group’s Haiti analyst, said. The International Crisis Group is an independent, non-profit organization that works to prevent and resolve deadly conflicts around the world.
The report traces the evolution of the country’s powerful Viv Ansanm gang coalition, describing how its members have “mutated from being tools in the hands of the most powerful to overlords of the country,” and issues a call for the protection of civilians once the new U.S.-backed, United Nations authorized Gang Suppression Force deploys. It also notes that Haitian authorities should be weary of gang’s ongoing political crusade to get a foothold in a future government.
“Though the U.S. has been clear that the new multinational force will corral any gang member it encounters, it would be sensible to exploit any early successes with a view to persuading gangs to negotiate their surrender,” the report said.
The brainchild of the Trump administration, the Gang Suppression Force has a deployment mandate of 5,500 personnel and 50 civilians. So far, 18 countries have pledged to field personnel, according to the Organization of American States, whose secretary general recently visited Port-au-Prince.
On Monday, two donors, France and Germany, contributed an additional 3 million euros and 30 million Euros respectively to a U.N. trust fund to support the deployed troops. The voluntary contributions bring total pledges to $151.3 million, of which $113.2 million has been received in cash.
The Crisis Group notes that soon after Kenya offered to lead a Multinational Security Mission to Haiti, the country’s most powerful gangs came together under the banner Viv Ansanm (Living Together) and soon led a full-scale offensive in Port-au-Prince as the final Kenya agreement was being signed in Nairobi in February 2024.
The same unprecedented level of violence could occur, the report warns, with the pending arrival of the Gang Suppression Force. While the first deployments of foreign soldiers are still months away, there are growing fears that the country’s armed groups will seek to exploit an ongoing power struggle over the next phase of the political transition ahead of Feb. 7, 2026, when the mandate of the current government will end without an election.
“Blessed by the U.N., the new Gang Suppression Force could spur a surge in combat, possibly endangering civilian lives,” the report warned.
Viv Ansanm’s political crusade
Once concentrated largely in Port-au-Prince, the country’s armed criminal groups have been rapidly expanding into other regions and becoming more brutal. At the same time, they’re becoming more overtly political, the Crisis Group highlighted.
For example, the Viv Ansanm alliance has announced that it is now a political party, even though it has not formally registered. In August, members sent a letter to the U.N.’s newly appointed special representative in Haiti, Carlos Ruiz Massieu, highlighting his role in overseeing Colombia’s peace process with the FARC and arguing that Haiti’s conflict could similarly be resolved through dialogue.
Last week, as internal clashes among rival factions spilled into the streets of Port-au-Prince leaving dozens of gunmen dead, Viv Ansanm’s most recognizable warlord, Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier, announced the conflict was being carried on behalf of “the country.”
In addition to a group of influencers who carry their messages, Viv Ansanm has tapped Chérizier, who was once a cop, as its spokesman. In between issuing threats to adversaries and acknowledging mistakes made by the gangs in his nearly daily videos on social media, Chérizier frequently comments on political affairs. He routinely casts the gangs’ activities as defending the poorest citizens from the country’s rapacious elites and foreign powers.
But behind the calls for dialogue and political crusades, the Crisis Group report suggests, lies a calculated effort to exploit Haiti’s political turmoil.
“Gangs are acutely aware that the country’s political instability has created opportunities to infiltrate Haitian governing institutions,” the report said. It added that by recasting themselves as defenders of the poor, Viv Ansanm is also seeking influence in Haiti’s next government — and ultimately, amnesty.
“They appear intent on guaranteeing that their allies are part of the next administration,” the report said. “The concrete result they aspire to is a general amnesty for leaders and members.”
It is imperative for Haitian authorities, even as they grapple with how to replace the current Transitional Presidential Council, to block gang members from being part of the new government, the Crisis Group said.
“Eventual negotiations with the gangs are more likely to succeed if Haitians are convinced that their government is intent on dismantling these groups, but not if they suspect that officials are colluding with crime bosses,” the report said.
Escalating crisis
On Tuesday, the International Rescue Committee said Haiti’s escalating gang crisis had made it one of the top 10 on its Emergency Watchlist of countries most at risk of worsening humanitarian crises in 2026. The country is number five, moving up three spots from last year due to gang rule and the failing aid push as millions face worsening violence, hunger and displacement.
“This escalation is fueled by the expansion of gang rule and changes to the conflict dynamics that have left millions without access to basic services and livelihoods, and created catastrophic levels of food insecurity and forced displacement,” the global humanitarian organization said.
Supporters of the Gang Suppression Force argue that, with its larger size and stronger mandate, it will be able to confront a wider range of threats, including drug trafficking and illicit weapons.
But the Crisis Group argues that for the new force to work, U.N. assistance is needed along with personnel trained in offensive urban operations to limit civilian casualties. Most gangs are entrenched in the densely populated slums of the capital.
“Even if the new international force receives the resources it needs, full victory over the gangs would require a prolonged campaign that could result in widespread civilian casualties. To minimize bloodshed and protect the many minors in the gangs’ ranks, the Haitian government and their foreign partners should exploit the shift in the balance of force provided by a more robust security operation to open a negotiating channel with the criminal groups,” the report said.
The report acknowledges that the majority of Haitians are “fervently” opposed to any dialogue with the gangs, fearing that it could lead to impunity for the perpetrators of numerous appalling crimes.
But under the right conditions, Crisis Group said, “the government and its foreign partners should explore ways to mitigate violence through dialogue. Ideally, they should provide incentives to gangs to demobilize while also guaranteeing they will not elude all liability for their acts.”
This story was originally published December 16, 2025 at 6:11 PM.
Jacqueline Charles has reported on Haiti and the English-speaking Caribbean for the Miami Herald for over a decade. A Pulitzer Prize finalist for her coverage of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, she was awarded a 2018 Maria Moors Cabot Prize — the most prestigious award for coverage of the Americas.
PETIT GOÂVE, Haiti (AP) — Amizia Renotte sat on a broken piece of concrete and pointed to a large pile of dirt where her house once stood before the outer bands of Hurricane Melissa crumpled it as the storm lashed Haiti’s southern region.
The Atlantic hurricane season may be over, but thousands of people like Renotte in this Carribean country and beyond are still looking for food and struggling to rebuild their lives nearly two months after the Category 5 storm pummeled the northern Caribbean region as one of the strongest Atlantic storms in recorded history.
“We ran. We had nothing to save,” Renotte said as she recalled waking up in the middle of the night surrounded by floodwaters.
Melissa killed at least 43 people across Haiti, many of them in Petit-Goâve, where residents are still digging out from under the storm that unleased deadly flooding.
Huge piles of dirt and mud now smother this southern coastal town, which once bustled with farmers and street vendors.
The groan of heavy machinery fills the air as crews slowly clear debris scattered by La Digue River, which swept away children, cars and homes in late October.
“People lost everything,” resident Clermont Wood Mandy said. “They lost their homes. They lost their children.”
Hunger persists
Petit-Goâve held a mass funeral in mid-November to say its goodbyes to loved ones, but hunger and frustration remain.
On a recent morning, people crowded around a small convenience store stocked with pasta, butter, rice and other basic items produced locally after receiving cash donations.
In line to buy something was 37-year-old Joceline Antoine, who lost five relatives in the storm.
“My house is destroyed,” she said.
Lola Castro, a regional director with the U.N.’s World Food Program, or WFP, who recently traveled to Petit-Goâve, said in a phone interview Friday that Melissa has deepened Haiti’s crises.
“Around 5.3 million people don’t have enough to eat every day in Haiti,” she said. “That’s a huge challenge.”
Castro noted that Petit-Goâve was an agricultural community that depended heavily on crops, including plantain, corn and beans.
“They have lost their income. They have lost their means of living,” she said.
‘No community will be forgotten’
Jamaica also is struggling to recover from Hurricane Melissa, which made landfall in the western part of the neighboring island in late October, causing an estimated $8.8 billion in damage.
The storm killed at least 45 people, and 13 others remain missing, with an additional 32 deaths under investigation, according to Alvin Gayle, director-general of Jamaica’s emergency management office.
Authorities have reported 30 confirmed cases of leptospirosis — an infection transmitted from animals — and another 84 unconfirmed ones, with 12 related deaths. There were also two cases of tetanus, one of them fatal.
“These figures underscore the scale of the human impact and the seriousness with which the ministries, departments and agencies of government continue to approach the recovery effort,” Gayle said.
More than 100 shelters remain open in seven of Jamaica’s parishes, housing more than 1,000 people.
Meanwhile, some 160 schools remain closed.
“No community will be forgotten,” Gayle said.
Jamaica recently announced that it obtained a $150 million loan to help restore electricity as quickly as possible, with officials saying they expect power to fully be restored by the end of January.
Jamaica also has obtained a $6.7 billion package for reconstruction efforts over three years from the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean; the Caribbean Development Bank; the Inter-American Development Bank Group; the International Monetary Fund; and the World Bank Group.
Call for funding
In Cuba, hundreds of people remain in makeshift shelters nearly two months after the hurricane made landfall in the eastern region of the island hours after it hit Jamaica.
No storm-related deaths were reported in Cuba, where authorities evacuated more than 700,000 people from coastal areas.
Nearly a month after the storm, the U.N. said that about 53,000 people in Cuba had been unable to return to their homes, including 7,500 living in official shelters.
Castro, of the WFP, said that Hurricane Melissa affected 6 million people overall in the Caribbean, including 1.2 million in Haiti.
Around 1.3 million people in the region now need food, security or other type of support, with WFP so far helping 725,000 of them, Castro said.
She said she hopes that number will grow, noting that the agency’s $83 million appeal is only 50% funded.
Residents of El Cobre, in the province of Santiago de Cuba, ride in a horse-pulled cart past downed power lines following the passage of Hurricane Melissa, on October 29, 2025. Hurricane Melissa was moving towards Bermuda on Thursday after ripping a path of destruction through the Caribbean that left at least 20 people dead in Haiti, and parts of Jamaica and Cuba in ruins. (
YAMIL LAGE
AFP via Getty Images
The Trump administration is ending the family-reunification parole programs for Cuba, Haiti and six other Latin American countries in another blow to legal migration from the region.
The Department of Homeland Security “is terminating all categorical family reunification parole programs for aliens from Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti and Honduras, and their immediate family members,” the agency said Friday.
Migrants who benefited from the program and are already in the United States will lose their legal status on Jan. 14 unless they have applied for permanent residence or to adjust their status by Dec. 15, DHS said. The agency will also revoke employment authorizations for migrants who lose their status.
DHS justified the decision by arguing that family-reunification parole programs “had security gaps caused by insufficient vetting that malicious and fraudulent actors could exploit to enter the United States, which posed an unacceptable level of risk to the United States….. DHS is prioritizing the safety, security, and financial and economic well-being of Americans.”
It is unclear, however, which security gaps the agency is referring to. Individuals granted parole under the family-reunification programs have already passed the vetting for a regular immigration visa and have been approved for one. The parole just allowed them to travel to the United States and wait here while the visa became available.
“These people were invited to come to the U.S. by the government and followed all of the regulations, and now they are being pushed out,” said Miami immigration attorney Patricia Elizée.
The original parole programs were put in place to expedite family reunification for Cubans and Haitians. Under the program, relatives of lawful U.S. permanent residents or citizens, who are already approved to immigrate to the United States, are offered the opportunity to travel to the U.S. and wait for permanent residency here rather than in their home country. The wait can take anywhere from eight to 10 years.
It was unclear Friday evening how many people will be affected by the administration’s decision.
The family-reunification parole process has suffered from backlogs and, in the case of Haiti, shuttered U.S. consular services in the Caribbean country. Even after arriving in the U.S., individuals benefiting from the program face a long wait before receiving their green cards. Those are the individuals the Trump administration is targeting with the new policy, while also closing the door on those still awaiting U.S. green light in their home countries.
The parole programs for Cubans and Haitians were suspended during the first Trump administration. They were reinstated by Biden, who later expanded them to include Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras in an effort to decrease the number of migrants from those countries trying to illegally cross the U.S. border.
The programs’ termination is another sign that the Trump administration does not welcome legal immigration from countries in the Caribbean and Latin America. Earlier this month, the administration halted all immigration processes, including adjustment of status, for Haitians, Cubans, Venezuelans and nationals of 13 other countries.
Ira Kurzban, a prominent Miami-based immigration attorney, said that Trump and his immigration czar, Stephen Miller, have “long planned the end of parole programs that protect the lives of many in the United States.”
“They stopped the parole programs during the first Miller/Trump administration. The only difference is that they are getting more adept at blaming Biden for everything. This decision, made during the first Miller/Trump administration, truly has nothing to do with Biden or what happened at the border. They just don’t want Hispanics and refugees of color in the United States,” he said. ”Trump virtually admitted it at [a] rally in Pennsylvania.”
Already, families split between South Florida, Cuba, and Haiti have found themselves in legal limbo and with very few options to reunite. Trump included Cuba and Haiti in a travel ban in June that paused family reunification involving relatives of permanent residents. And thousands of Cubans and Haitians who entered the country through another two-year humanitarian parole program created under Biden face deportation after DHS canceled the program and revoked their paroles.
Melodie, a Haitian national who asked for her last name to not be used, told the Miami Herald she has been waiting almost a decade to join her mother and siblings in the United States after her mother applied for permanent residency for her. In 2021, she received a letter notifying her she had been “technically approved.”
“Since then, I’ve been waiting for an opportunity for an interview in Haiti,” she said about one of the final hurdles needed before being allowed to travel to the United States to complete the process. “There’s a long wait for the residents’ interviews.”
Though she periodically checks her status online, she said, she began losing hope in November 2024 when she saw that Trump had won the election. This was further cemented when he instituted a travel ban for Haiti.
“I’ve just sort of been telling myself…I’m among the lucky few. I have good work in Haiti. I live in Cap-Haïtien with family, and I’m committed to living here,” she said. ”I didn’t sell my house like other people did, and pack up everything, so I minimized my risks, and I didn’t quit my job.”
Still, the idea of possibly being shut off from the U.S. while living in a country on the brink of collapse is daunting, said the 41-year-old who had basically put her life on hold after moving from gang-torn Port-au-Prince. “I was moving to the States because that’s where my family is.”
The DHS called the termination “a necessary return to common-sense policies and a return to America First.”
This story was originally published December 12, 2025 at 6:21 PM.
Nora Gámez Torres is the Cuba/U.S.-Latin American policy reporter for el Nuevo Herald and the Miami Herald. She studied journalism and media and communications in Havana and London. She holds a Ph.D. in sociology from City, University of London. Her work has won awards by the Florida Society of News Editors and the Society for Professional Journalists.//Nora Gámez Torres estudió periodismo y comunicación en La Habana y Londres. Tiene un doctorado en sociología y desde el 2014 cubre temas cubanos para el Nuevo Herald y el Miami Herald. También reporta sobre la política de Estados Unidos hacia América Latina. Su trabajo ha sido reconocido con premios de Florida Society of News Editors y Society for Profesional Journalists.
Cars are submerged in mudin Petit-Goave, Haiti.f ollowing Hurricane Melissa’s torrential rains.
CLARENS SIFFROY
AFP via Getty Images
A month and a half after Hurricane Melissa killed dozens of people in Haiti, the country is still struggling with its aftermath.
Haitians, who were already going hungry because gang violence has blocked highways and cut off commerce, are grappling with even more shortages and the loss of crops, the regional director of the United Nations’ World Food Program said Thursday during a visit to the country.
As she spoke via video, a helicopter, still the only way humanitarian aid workers can get in and out of Port-au-Prince and into storm-ravaged areas, flew overhead.
“We cannot forget Haiti,“ Lola Castro said, adding it remains one of five countries in the world where people “don’t have enough to eat every day.”
Among the places she visited, Castro said, was the coastal town of Petit-Goâve, where a river overflowed its banks, killing at least 25 people. Along with homes and livelihoods, residents also lost their crops.
“They have lost their families, their livelihoods, their crops, their cattle, their houses, and now they are trying to rebuild their lives,” she said.
At least 43 storm-related deaths were reported in Haiti, even though Melissa did not hit the country directly and U.N. agencies tried to prepare the public ahead of the storm.
There are ongoing efforts by the ministry of agriculture and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations “to see how these communities can replant and rehabilitate their livelihoods,” she said.
Castro said the U.N. agency is working on recovery and rehabilitation in a number of ways, including school feeding programs and working with the government on a system that registers everyone affected.
The World Food Program provides over 600,000 children a hot meal every day in many schools in Haiti. Castro noted that with up to 90% of Haiti’s capital under gang control, the agency has created a large logistics operations to help get access to vulnerable communities.
The World Food Program is equally active in Jamaica, where fishermen have lost their boats, and in Cuba, where the loss of almost all crops on the easter end of the island and an ancient, trouble-plagued electrical grid has made for “a very difficult situation.”
Jacqueline Charles has reported on Haiti and the English-speaking Caribbean for the Miami Herald for over a decade. A Pulitzer Prize finalist for her coverage of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, she was awarded a 2018 Maria Moors Cabot Prize — the most prestigious award for coverage of the Americas.
People stand near debris on a street on October 6, 2025 in the Solino neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, as residents have begun returning to the area after it was attacked by gang fighters in late 2024. More than 16,000 people have been killed in armed violence in Haiti since the start of 2022, the United Nations said on October 2, warning that “the worst may be yet to come”. The poorest country in the Americas, Haiti has long suffered at the hands of violent criminal gangs that commit murders, rapes, looting, and kidnappings against a backdrop of chronic political instability.
CLARENS SIFFROY
AFP via Getty Images
The Trump administration’s decision to end Temporary Protected Status, TPS, for up to a half million Haitians prompted an immediate wave of criticism from non-profit organizations working in Haiti, community activists and some Democratic lawmakers.
In its announcement on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, the Department of Homeland Security said it does not serve national interests to have Haitians legally living and working in the U.S. on a temporary basis, even though their unstable homeland faces one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
DHS said Secretary Kristi Noem “has determined that there are no extraordinary and temporary conditions in Haiti that prevent Haitian nationals (or aliens having no nationality who last habitually resided in Haiti) from returning in safety.”
The agency set a Feb. 3, 2026, deadline for leaving and said those who self-deport and use the CBP Home mobile application to report their departure will also be eligible for a complimentary plane ticket, a $1,000 exit bonus and noted there were potential future opportunities for legal immigration.
But the administration has already set up barriers for that to happen. Haiti is one of 19 countries covered by a travel ban that restricts nationals from entering the United States. That restriction was introduced earlier this year by President Donald Trump and applies to any Haitian who currently doesn’t have a valid U.S. visa.
Advocates for Haiti, from a Miami-Dade County commissioner to international groups, blasted the move in statement to the Miami Herald. It’s also likely to draw legal challenges:
* “Is this the way to give thanks to a people whose ancestors fought for U.S. independence, a people who by defeating the Napoleon army, allowed the U.S. to double its size through the Louisiana Purchase, thereby contributing to its wealth ? A people who continue to give their all to make this nation great.
“Haiti is going through one of the worst crisis in history; it is totally controlled by violent gangs , plagued by political violence and instability, with daily reports of killings, kidnappings, arson and collective gang rapes. Forcing anyone to return under these conditions could expose them to serious harm and possibly death.
“TPS holders work hard to take care of their families, send remittances back home and contribute about $21 billion annually to the U.S. economy, in addition to paying $5.2 billion in combined federal, payroll, state, and local taxes. I urge the Trump administration to reverse course and Congress to work promptly in a bi-partisan manner to blaze a path to protect these most deserving families.” —Miami Dade County Commissioner Marleine Bastien.
* “The Trump Administration, hellbent on ending TPS for Haitians, will be remembered for their cruelty and attacks against Haitians living lawfully in the United States. They must reverse course now.” — U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-New York, House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member.
* “At World Relief, we’re heartbroken by this decision to press ahead with the termination of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians currently residing and working lawfully in the United States—though, at this point, after the Department of Homeland Security has sought to terminate TPS for lawfully present individuals from Afghanistan, Syria, South Sudan, Burma and Venezuela, we’re no longer surprised.
“As an organization that has operated in Haiti since 1988 in partnership with local churches, we are painfully aware that, whatever our government says, Haiti is not currently a safe place to which to deport hundreds of thousands of people, particularly after being hit hard by Hurricane Melissa less than a month ago. We pray that Secretary Noem will reconsider this decision and that Americans will both advocate for their Haitian neighbors in the U.S. and step up to provide further resources to come alongside brave Haitian leaders confronting one humanitarian crisis after another.” — Matthew Soerens, vice president of advocacy and policy at World Relief.
Armed gang members on a motorbike patrol the streets in the Mariani neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on October 6, 2025. Mariani is near the Route Nationale 2, parts of which have been taken over by gangs. More than 16,000 people have been killed in armed violence in Haiti since the start of 2022, the United Nations said on October 2, warning that “the worst may be yet to come”. The poorest country in the Americas, Haiti has long suffered at the hands of violent criminal gangs that commit murders, rapes, looting, and kidnappings against a backdrop of chronic political instability. CLARENS SIFFROY AFP via Getty Images
* “Blown away by the hatefulness, which seems to pervade our government leadership. Protected status, ha! Such a travesty, half a million Haitians have nowhere to return to. Breaks our heart… This just adds to the displacement problem. When will this end?
“America being great by disparaging the world’s most vulnerable people…really? So sad! Hope the challenges overwhelm the administration and they are forced to back down. This is a complete farce!!” — Dr. Ted Higgins, a retired vascular surgeon based in Kansas City who built and operates a medical center in Fond-Parisien along National Road 8, which connects Port-au-Prince to the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo
* “As Mayor of North Miami, I am deeply disappointed by the administration’s decision to end Haiti’s TPS designation. Every day, I hear from residents who cannot safely return due to political violence and instability, and Haiti simply cannot absorb hundreds of thousands of people right now. Announcing this on the eve of Thanksgiving is especially cruel to families already living in fear. As one of the cities with the largest Haitian communities in America, we are devastated.
“This moment demands compassion and responsible leadership. The Haitian community has shown remarkable resilience, and while this decision may shake us, it will not break our spirit.” — North Miami Mayor Alix Desulme
This story was originally published November 26, 2025 at 9:11 PM.
Jacqueline Charles has reported on Haiti and the English-speaking Caribbean for the Miami Herald for over a decade. A Pulitzer Prize finalist for her coverage of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, she was awarded a 2018 Maria Moors Cabot Prize — the most prestigious award for coverage of the Americas.
The Trump administration announced Wednesday a renewed effort to terminate the Temporary Protected Status of 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 U.S.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem made the decision after the Trump administration’s initial attempts to end the TPS protections of hundreds of thousands of Haitians earlier this year were stalled in federal court.
Noem acknowledged the humanitarian and political problems faced by crisis-stricken Haiti — including what she called “widespread gang violence” — but said 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 permitting Haitian nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is contrary to the U.S. national interest,” the official DHS termination notice said.
The TPS program for Haiti is now set to expire on Feb. 3, and the termination is expected to affect 352,959 beneficiaries, DHS said in its notice. Trump administration officials have urged TPS holders whose status is set to lapse to self-deport or face the prospect of being detained and forcibly removed from the U.S.
TPS allows beneficiaries to work and live in the U.S. without fear of deportation for time periods outlined by DHS. The humanitarian program was created by Congress in 1990 to allow administrations to grant a temporary safe haven to foreigners from countries facing an armed conflict, an environmental disaster or other emergencies.
The Biden administration vastly expanded the TPS policy, offering the protections to hundreds of thousands of new arrivals from Afghanistan, Haiti, Ukraine, Venezuela and other countries. Some of those who benefit from TPS entered the U.S. illegally, most commonly along the southern border, while others arrived legally on temporary visas or programs.
As part of its government-wide immigration crackdown, the second Trump administration has sought to dismantle most TPS programs, revoking or moving to revoke legal protections for hundreds of thousands of Afghans, Burmese, Cameroonians, Haitians, Hondurans, Nepalis, Nicaraguans, Syrians, Sudanese and Venezuelans.
The Trump administration has argued the TPS policy has been abused by Democratic administrations, exploited by bad actors and extended for too long, even though it is designed to be temporary in nature. In some cases, it has argued conditions in countries with TPS have improved and in other cases, it has said that extending the program would not further U.S. interests, even if conditions in the affected nations remain dire.
In its notice Wednesday, DHS argued the TPS policy for Haiti was a magnet for illegal immigration, and that continuing the program posed national security and public safety risks. It cited concerns about its ability to properly vet Haitian migrants, and cases of some TPS holders from Haiti being implicated in immigration fraud or national security investigations.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem concluded that Haiti no longer meets the ‘statutory requirements for TPS.’
Carlos Gonzalez
TNS
The Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday announced the end of temporary immigration protections for Haitians, adding them to a growing list of immigrant groups seeing their protected status revoked by the Trump administration.
The decision, which becomes effective on Feb. 3, 2026, could affect more than a half million Haitians living in the U.S. under what is known as Temporary Protected Status. The designation was granted to Haiti after a string of natural and political disasters, starting with a catastrophic earthquake in 2010 that left the country and economy in ruins.
Barring potential legal delays from lawsuits, Haitians now will face returning to an unstable country facing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises as criminal gangs control all major roads in and out of the capital of Port-au-Prince, and aggressively spread their terror to other regions.
DHS in its Federal Register notice acknowledged that “certain conditions in Haiti remain concerning.” But despite that, and the escalating violence “that has ‘engulfed’ Port-au-Prince‘, Secretary Kristi Noem “has determined that there are no extraordinary and temporary conditions in Haiti that prevent Haitian nationals (or aliens having no nationality who last habitually resided in Haiti) from returning in safety,” the agency wrote.
“Moreover, even if the Department found that there existed conditions that were extraordinary and temporary that prevented Haitian nationals,” the agency added, “from returning in safety, termination of Temporary Protected Status of Haiti is still required because it is contrary to the national interest of the United States to permit Haitian nationals …to remain temporarily in the United States.”
As of 11:59 p.m. February 3, 2026, all Haitian nationals who have been granted TPS, will lose the status and must leave.
“After consulting with interagency partners, Secretary Noem concluded that Haiti no longer meets the statutory requirements for TPS,” the agency wrote in its announcement.
“This decision was based on a review conducted by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, input from relevant U.S. government agencies, and an analysis indicating that allowing Haitian nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is inconsistent with U.S. national interests.”
The numbers paint a terrible picture in Haiti. A record 5.7 million people — 51% of the total population — are currently experiencing acute levels of hunger, with children increasingly at risk for malnutrition, the World Food Program recently warned. Meanwhile, as many as 1 in 4 Haitians, 2.7 million people, are forced to live in gang-controlled neighborhoods, more than 1.4 million are internally displaced, according to the United Nations. Rape, kidnapping and gang-related killings, all over 4,000 this year, are daily realities of life.
DHS said that the data indicates parts of the country are suitable to return to. That isn’t entirely true.
Even in communities, where armed groups are not yet visibly a problem, the situation is critical. The northern port city of Cap-Haïtien, which until this month offered the only access for international flights amid an ongoing U.S. Federal Aviation Administration ban on U.S. carriers, is bursting at the seams. The southern regions are also struggling to recover from Hurricane Melissa.
The storm’s recent passage unleashed widespread disruption and compounded existing problems with food and transportation, even though the country dodged a direct hit. At least 43 deaths were reported, mostly in the south, which is today completely cut off from the north and capital by road due to the presence of gangs that on Sunday once more forced the suspension of flights after firing on a domestic airline as it landed at the Port-au-Prince airport.
“Many households rely on unsafe water sources and lack access to basic sanitation, increasing the risk of disease outbreaks,” the U.N. said about the situation in southern Haiti. “Health facilities are under-equipped, financially inaccessible for many, and unable to provide mental health support. As a result, preventable illnesses and malnutrition are on the rise, particularly among children and pregnant women. Vulnerable groups — including women, girls, and youth — face heightened protection risks, including exploitation and violence.”
Though DHS previously announced the end of Haiti’s designation as of Feb. 3, the law requires the secretary to review country conditions at least 60 days before the expiration of TPS to determine whether the country continues to meet the conditions for designation.
“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 permitting Haitian nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is contrary to the U.S. national interest,” the notice said.
The administration’s decision isn’t surprising. Since taking office, President Donald Trump has moved to rollback immigration protections for Haitians and others, and ended TPS protections for millions of migrants from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Honduras, Syria, Nepal, Cameroon, Afghanistan, Burma, Somalia and Myanmar.
The agency’s order, issued a day before the Thanksgiving holiday, was blunt: “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.”
But advocates for Haitians in the U.S. called the move poorly-timed and cruel.
“If Haiti doesn’t warrant TPS, which country does?” said Guerline Jozef, co-founder of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, a San Diego immigrant rights group. “For this news to come on the eve of Thanksgiving is devastating.”
Jozef pointed out that Washington has acknowledged both in recent communiqués and actions the crisis plaguing Haiti, which has been mired by repeated crises since its first designation. Among them: a deadly Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and a 7.2 earthquake in in 2021, five weeks after its president, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated in the middle of the night.
In justifying its decision, DHS quoted U.N. Secretary General António Guterres’s comments in August that “there are emerging signals of hope.” But in that same meeting, he also warned that they were in “a perfect storm” of suffering as state authority crumbled across Haiti and lawlessness and gang brutality paralyze daily life.
In May, the Trump administration designated a powerful coalition of gangs, Viv Ansanm, and another group, Gran Grif, as Foreign Terrorists Organizations. In September, the U.S.’s new ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz, led an aggressive push at the U.N. Security Council for support for a new Gang Suppression Force to help in the fight against terrorist gangs. Despite DHS’ highlight of these decisions, little has improved in Haiti since the steps were taken. In fact, the situation has worsened.
The deployment of the first contingent of the 5,500-GSF is still uncertain even as the U.S. pushes for general elections, which last took place in 2016, and last week gangs escalated their attacks. The latter, led the State Department on Monday to revoke the visa of a member of the ruling presidential council, Fritz Alphonse Jean. Jean has vehemently denied the accusations, and in a scathing press conference on Tuesday accused the U.S. of threatening him and others because they want to fire the prime minister over “incompetence.”
A State Department spokesperson, responding to a Miami Herald inquiry about Jean’s claims, said “We will not comment on or speculate about private diplomatic discussions or unverified reports.”
In another recent example reflecting conditions in Haiti: Over the weekend, a group of members of Congress, mostly Republicans, visited the Dominican Republic after canceling plans to travel to Port-au-Prince amid safety and logistics concerns.
“It makes absolutely no sense for the U.S. to terminate TPS for Haiti at this critical time, where the admiration has acknowledged the ongoing political crisis in Haiti to the point of having a Level 4 ‘Do not travel’ warning to the country,” Jozef said. “They must protect the Haitian who have called the U.S. home for over a decade, those who are already here, who have families, who have businesses in their adoptive communities.”
It’s not the first time the administration has tried to revoke TPS for Haitians. Soon after taking office this year, Trump attempted to rollback an extension given under the Biden administration. The decision was overridden by a New York federal judge, who said Noem had no authority to shorten the designation. The decision was part of a lawsuit spearheaded by a group of lawyers that, included Miami immigration attorney Ira Kurzban.
The suit was amended earlier this year to prevent the administration from ending the designation. Kurzban, who also successfully sued DHS during the first Trump administration after it sought to revoke TPS for Haitians, said the administration’s rationale for ending TPS is based on “outright lies.”
“Haiti is in political and economic turmoil due in large measure to U.S. foreign policy, including by the current administration. The reasons offered to terminate TPS are frivolous and include mischaracterizations and outright lies,” he said.
“They are a product of Trump, [Vice President JD] Vance and Sec. Noem’s actions that demonstrate hatred of Haitians and racism toward Black refugees.”
This story was originally published November 26, 2025 at 11:30 AM.
Jacqueline Charles has reported on Haiti and the English-speaking Caribbean for the Miami Herald for over a decade. A Pulitzer Prize finalist for her coverage of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, she was awarded a 2018 Maria Moors Cabot Prize — the most prestigious award for coverage of the Americas.
Flooding and damaged buildings are seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa in Lacovia, St Elizabeth, Jamaica, on October 31, 2025.
RICARDO MAKYN
AFP via Getty Images
Jamaica is seeing an outbreak of leptospirosis and is urging anyone who is experiencing symptoms from the infectious disease to seek immediate medical care.
A serious public health risk associated with heavy rainfalls, the disease is caused by the Leptospira bacteria found in water contaminated by the urine of infected animals like rats, cats, dogs and livestock. The signs of leptospirosis include flu-like symptoms with high fever, headache, chills and muscle aches. Infected persons can experience kidney or liver failure or internal bleeding.
“It can affect anyone who comes in contact with contaminated soil or mud. That includes farmers, persons engaged in clean-up activities, emergency responders and others navigating flood areas,” Health Minister Christopher Tufton said.
Tufton confirmed the outbreak on Friday. Health officials said there was in increase in confirmed and suspected cases across eight parishes in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa, which devastated the island on Oct. 28 as a Category 5 hurricane. Preliminary assessments show that the country has suffered nearly $9 billion in damages.
Tufton said there have been 28 probable cases of the infectious disease reported between Oct. 30 and Nov. 20.
“The numbers reflect significantly more cases… than observed in the proceeding 34 months,” he said. “There have been six deaths from the suspected cases.”
On Monday, the United Nations Development Program announced that it is providing an initial $2 million in grants to help stabilize affected communities, including restoring livelihoods of vulnerable groups and supporting national authorities and key sectors. An additional $8 million is also under consideration.
More than 90 organizations are currently involved in Jamaica’s post-hurricane response, the U.N. said last week.
“Response operations have been stepped up as access improves. Emergency medical teams and mobile clinics have now been deployed, allowing critical services to resume despite damaged infrastructure. Public health teams are also scaling up water-quality testing and environmental health inspections,” said Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres.
More than 45,000 food kits have been distributed, while the World Food Program is working with the government to prepare a transition to cash-based assistance. Meanwhile, more than 100 emergency shelters remain open, but the effort is not without challenges.
“Flooding is persisting, which is delaying the reopening of schools and further damaging agricultural roads and infrastructure,” Dujarric said. “The floods are also increasing risks to public health due to the risk of water-borne diseases,”
Jacqueline Charles has reported on Haiti and the English-speaking Caribbean for the Miami Herald for over a decade. A Pulitzer Prize finalist for her coverage of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, she was awarded a 2018 Maria Moors Cabot Prize — the most prestigious award for coverage of the Americas.
A view of Toussaint Louverture International Airport, foreground, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Commercial flights in and out of the airport were suspended in early March 2024 when armed groups targeted the facility and nearby domestic airport. They were suspended again in November after gangs fired on three U.S. airplanes.
Jose A. Iglesias
jiglesias@elnuevoherald.com
A domestic flight was struck by bullets on Sunday while landing at the Guy Malary terminal of the Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, sources told the Miami Herald.
The aircraft, operated by Sunrise Airways, was arriving from Les Cayes in the country’s southwest region. No injuries were reported.
The airline immediately suspended all arriving and departing flights to and from Port-au-Prince until further notice. It did not, however, say why flights were being grounded.
A spokesperson for the airline did not immediately respond to a Miami Herald inquiry, nor did a spokesman for the Haitian national police.
In its statement, Haitian-owned Sunrise Airways said flights were being grounded “for strictly security-related reasons.”
“This decision was made in order to protect our passengers, crews and operations, given the current security situation,” Sunrise Airways’ said. “We are closely monitoring developments in coordination with the relevant authorities and will resume operations as soon as conditions allow.
“The safety of our passengers and employees remains the company’s top priority. No risks will be taken until all conditions are fully met to operate safely,” the company added.
According to sources, the aircraft was struck during its final approach.
The incident comes on the heels of an uptick in attacks by the Viv Ansanm gang coalition in the last week, in response to intensive police operations. In response, gang members set up barricades across the capital and launched attacks near the port. There are also reports of infighting among coalition members over extortion checkpoints.
Haiti has been under a ban by the Federal Aviation Administration since November 2024 when criminal gangs fired upon three U.S. carriers as they flew over the capital. The ban allows U.S. planes and those operated by U.S. licensed pilots to transit over Port-au-Prince above 10,000 feet, but they cannot land at the airport. In September, the ban was extended until March 7, 2026.
Carriers from Canada and France have also followed suit and earlier this year, American Airlines quietly shut down its operations after 50 years of servicing the country.
The incident is a huge setback for the government, which was trying to provide a sense of normalcy for travelers trying to access the capital, whose only options were to risk their lives on public buses through gang controlled roads or pay for an expensive helicopter ride.
After suspending domestic airlines services last year because of the escalating gang violence, Sunrise Airways resumed operations in June after reaching an agreement with the government over a financial assistance package. Despite the resumption, there were no visible signs of improvements to the security situation near the airport. As late as last month, security analysts warned that violent criminal activity in Port-au-Prince and particularly in the vicinity of the airport poses a security risk.
In addition to its domestic operations, Sunrise Airways operates regular service between Mami and Cap-Haïtien, Haiti’s second-largest city. Earlier this month, South Florida-based IBC Airways also launched a commercial service between Miami and the city of Les Cayes in southern, Haiti.
This story was originally published November 23, 2025 at 4:01 PM.
Two North Texas men are accused of plotting to invade an island off the coast of Haiti, kill the male inhabitants and use the women and children as sex slaves, according to court documents.
Two North Texas men are accused of plotting to invade an island off the coast of Haiti, kill the male inhabitants and use the women and children as sex slaves, federal authorities said.
Twenty-year-old Tanner Christopher Thomas, of Argyle, and 21-year-old Gavin Rivers Weisenburg, of Allen, were indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy to murder, maim or kidnap in a foreign country, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Texas said in a news release Thursday. If convicted, they could face up to life in prison.
According to the release, the two men planned to buy guns and ammunition and recruit members of Washington D.C.’s homeless population to help with the invasion.
“Weisenburg and Thomas are alleged to have conspired to recruit and lead an unlawful expeditionary force to the Island of Gonave, which is part of the Republic of Haiti, for the purpose of carrying out their rape fantasies,” the release states.
Officials say the conspiracy occurred between August 2024 and July 2025. During that time, investigators say, Weisenburg and Thomas were learning the Haitian Creole language and enrolling in schools to learn skills they would need for the coup.
Thomas enlisted in the U.S. Air Force “to acquire military skills relevant to the invasion plan,” prosecutors said in the release.
The defendants have also been charged with the production of child pornography, which carries a potential sentence of up to 30 years in federal prison.
The FBI, U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations and Celina Police Department are investigating the case.
Gonave Island is only accessible by small aircraft or boat and has a population of around 100,000 people.
KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — The tiny Caribbean island country Curaçao will go to the 2026 World Cup as the smallest nation by population ever to qualify for the marquee event in men’s soccer.
Curaçao, an autonomous territory of about 156,000 people within the Netherlands kingdom, takes the record of Iceland, with a population of just over 350,000, which was the previous smallest country to reach the World Cup when it qualified for Russia 2018.
A team relying heavily on players born and raised in the Netherlands rode its luck Tuesday to take a 0-0 draw in Jamaica and finish top of a four-team group. Its other opponents were Trinidad and Tobago and last-place Bermuda.
Curaçao has actively recruited from its diaspora, getting permission from FIFA within world soccer’s rules to change the national-team eligibility of players who once represented the Netherlands at youth or Under-21 level, including five since August.
Defender Joshua Brenet even played a World Cup qualifying game for the Netherlands in 2016.
Tahith Chong, a former Manchester United youth player, is one of the few squad members born in Curaçao, which was called Netherlands Antilles until getting its autonomy 15 years ago.
A storied Dutch coach has led Curaçao on to the elite stage for the first expanded 48-team World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Haiti scored a decisive victory against Nicaragua on Tuesday, securing a place in the 2026 Soccer World Cup. (AP/ Pierre Luxama)
Dick Advocaat, at age 78, is set to lead his third team at a World Cup, and his second in the U.S. He took his native Netherlands to the quarterfinals at the 1994 edition and coached South Korea at the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
Curaçao’s adventure is set to put players from unheralded clubs on the biggest stage. The squad that clinched qualification included players from Rotherham in England’s third-tier league, Bandırmaspor in the Turkish second division and Abha in Saudi Arabia.
Curaçao got the historic result despite not having Advocaat on the bench. He missed the match in Jamaica because he had to return to the Netherlands last weekend for family reasons.
His team saw Jamaica strike the woodwork three times in the second half in Kingston. A potentially decisive penalty kick awarded to the home team in stoppage time was overturned after a video review.
Curaçao will be joined by regional neighbors Panama and Haiti, which also booked their World Cup spots Tuesday.
Panama advanced to its second World Cup after defeating El Salvador 3-0 on first-half goals from César Blackman and Eric Davis, plus Jose Luis Rodriguez late in the game.
Panama’s only previous World Cup appearance was in 2018. It overtook Suriname, another Dutch-influenced team, which started play atop the group before losing 3-1 against Guatemala.
Haiti, a troubled Caribbean country, had a surprising campaign and beat Nicaragua 2-0 to win its group over favorites Honduras and Costa Rica, which was a quarterfinalist at the 2014 World Cup.
Haiti’s only previous trip to the World Cup was in West Germany in 1974.
The Caribbean and central American results Tuesday also finalized the six teams which will take part in the intercontinental playoffs in Mexico in March.
Two teams will qualify from the playoffs, which includes Jamaica and Suriname, plus Iraq from Asia, Congo from Africa, Bolivia from South America and New Caledonia from Oceania.
Curaçao and Haiti have defied the odds to secure historic qualifying berths for next year’s FIFA World Cup.
The two countries clinched top spots in their respective groups to advance from the North and Central American and Caribbean (CONCACAF) region to the 48-team finals in Canada, Mexico and the US.
Haiti beat Nicaragua 2-0 in Curaçao, where it has been forced to play its home fixtures because of the strife in its country, to finish top of Group C.
Curaçao held Jamaica to a goalless draw away to stay one point ahead of its hosts at the top of Group B, despite being without veteran Dutch coach Dick Advocaat, who returned to Europe at the weekend for family reasons.
A self-governing part of the Netherlands with a population of 156,000, the Caribbean island nation is easily the least populous country to go to the World Cup, beating the previous record held by Iceland with its 350,000 inhabitants.
Curacao lived dangerously in Kingston, where Jamaica was awarded a last-gasp penalty 4 minutes into stoppage time only for the referee to change his decision after consulting VAR.
Jamaica, coached by former England manager Steve McClaren, needed a win to qualify but hit the woodwork three times in the second half and Curacao’s team, made up entirely of players born in the Netherlands with Antillean roots, held out to secure a World Cup debut.
Haiti’s qualification was remarkable given that armed gangs have taken control of almost all of the capital, Port-au-Prince, in a conflict that has forced some 1.3 million people from their homes and fuelled famine-level hunger.
The levels of danger in Haiti are such that coach Sébastien Migne has not been there since being appointed 18 months ago but the Frenchman has nevertheless managed to engineer a fairytale qualification — the country’s second after a first appearance in 1974.
Haiti started the final round of fixtures on Tuesday behind Honduras on goal difference, but goals from Louicious Deedson and Ruben Providence lifted it to 11 points, while Honduras drew 0-0 away at Costa Rica and finished on nine.
Panama has also booked a ticket after romping to a 3-0 win over El Salvador to also top its group.
“Los Canaleros” went ahead early after a thunderous strike from wingback Cesar Blackman, with their second coming from the penalty spot courtesy of Eric Davis, who was in the squad when Panama made its only previous World Cup appearance in 2018.
Substitute Jose Luis Rodriguez added a third late in the game.
Suriname had been ahead of Panama on goal difference before the start of Tuesday’s games but lost 3-1 in Guatemala.
However, a late own goal kept it in World Cup contention as it will go, along with Jamaica, to the inter-confederation play-off tournament in March.
There, the two CONCACAF teams will be matched against Bolivia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, and New Caledonia. The six teams will be vying for two spots at the finals.
As terrorizing criminal gangs in Haiti continue their aggressive tactics, U.S. authorities are sending a strong message: Fire on U.S. embassy personnel or property and expect to be fired upon.
That was the action taken on Thursday when suspected gang members fired shots near the U.S. embassy compound, east of Port-au-Prince.
“Marines supporting embassy security operations were fired upon by suspected gang members in Port-au-Prince and the Marines returned fire on the evening of 13 Nov.,” Capt Steven J. Keenan, a spokesman for the U S. Marines, confirmed to the Miami Herald in an email after the incident was made public this weekend. “No Marines were injured.”
Keenan referred additional questions to the U.S. Embassy in Haiti. The State Department did not respond to a request for further details.
This is not the first time that suspected gang members have opened fire near the embassy, which is surrounded by three major armed groups and has been forced to reduce staff due to the escalating security concerns.
Despite recent signs of gangs slowing down attacks in Port-au-Prince, they’ve continued to utilize aggressive tactics to maintain their tightened grip on 90% of the capital, and they have resumed for ransom kidnappings, demanding upwards of over $100,000 for the release of victims.
The latest exchange of gunfire between U.S. Marines and suspected gang members, who are part of the Viv Ansanm gang coalition, unfolded during scaled up security operations last week. The multi-day operations targeted the strongholds of the 400 Mawozo and Chen Mechan gangs and their leaders. They were carried out by specialized units of the Haiti National Police, Armed Forces of Haiti, and the Kenyan-led security mission operating as the recently approved Gang Suppression Force. The forces also received assistance from a weaponized drone task force overseen by private military contractors employed by former Blackwater founder Erik Prince.
Gang attacks were continuing Sunday despite the operations. Members of Viv Ansanm, which has been designated by Washington as a foreign and global terrorist organization, reportedly set up roadblocks and burning barricades in Cité Militaire and Simon-Pelé, west of the Airport Road in Port-au-Prince.
Meanwhile, 400 Mawozo, the target of last week’s operations, set up multiple barricades in its Croix-des-Bouquets stronghold. Haitian police’s anti-gang units were deployed to the areas.
In reaction to the expanded security operations, leaders of Viv Ansanm are threatening a shutdown on Monday.
In a video released Saturday night, former policeman turned warlord Jimmy Chérizier, who is known as “Barbecue,” called on the population not to go out on Monday “to avoid becoming victims.” Presenting himself as the president and spokesperson of Viv Ansanm, he said gang members plan to deploy and that the population should “leave the streets to them” and to Haitian police.
In another video on Sunday, gang leader “Krisla” another leading figure in Viv Ansanm, called for “a general strike” and for Haitians to rise up as he accused the country’s elite and transitional government of targeting the population.
“We are telling the Haitian people, rise up en masse,” “Krisla” said in a message being shared on social networks.
The gang leader controls Carrefour, a sprawling suburb south of Port-au-Prince. He said schools and government offices should all be closed on Monday. Only hospitals and the fire department should remain open. In his message, “Krisla” accused Haitian security forces of using a helicopter to try and kill the population, and called for “the entire country” to fight against the “corrupted” system.”
“We are telling the Haitian people, the youth, we have to take our destiny in our hands,” he said accusing journalists of also conspiring against Viv Ansanm.
The message, masked as a call against Haiti’s corrupt and dysfunctional system, comes as members of Viv Ansanm leaders find themselves under increased pressure from anti-gang operations.
Over the weekend, for example, the area around the embassy at times sounded like a war zone. Embassy employees as late as Saturday afternoon were under shelter-in-place orders.
As units targeted 400 Mawozo, Viv Ansanm members turned to a common tactic to stretch police resources and break the momentum of the operations. Over Haitian police radio, officers were told that gangs were approaching the old U.S. embassy building in downtown Port-au-Prince. The building, which was donated to the Haitian government after the 2010 earthquake, has been off limits due to gangs’ control of the area.
In addition to the previously reported high-powered Barrett M50 sniper rifle that was recovered from 400 Mawozo, security forces also seized six assault rifles and three pistols during operations targeting the group, which had blocked and fortified several sections of National Route 3, the spokesman for the Kenyan forces said in a statement about the operations.
Security forces also intercepted and seized an armored bulldozer the gang had been using to erect road barricades, spokesman Jack Ombaka said. Several gang members were also neutralized, he said.
Haitian police previously told the Herald that seven gang members had been killed as of Friday, and a helicopter providing air support to police units had to be destroyed after it was forced to make an emergency landing in the Santo and Lilavois area.
“The elite unit on board was immediately secured and evacuated by ground units, who came under heavy gunfire from gangs during the extraction,” Ombaka said.
On Sunday, gang attacks continued to be reported. Members of the Viv Ansanm gang coalition were said to have set up roadblocks and burning barricades in Cité Militaire and Simon-Pelé, west of the Airport Road in Port-au-Prince.
This story was originally published November 16, 2025 at 2:39 PM.
Jacqueline Charles has reported on Haiti and the English-speaking Caribbean for the Miami Herald for over a decade. A Pulitzer Prize finalist for her coverage of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, she was awarded a 2018 Maria Moors Cabot Prize — the most prestigious award for coverage of the Americas.
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