Haitian families across the United States are celebrating the Biden administration’s decision to spare at least 55,000 people from deportation back to their corruption-and-violence plagued home country.
The decision announced late May 22 by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas covers Haitian migrants living in the United States as of May 21, granting them Temporary Protected Status to remain and work legally in the United States for at least another 18 months.
In Florida, Haitians were “dancing in the streets” when Mayorkas announced the decision, said Congresswoman Frederica Wilson, a Democrat who represents neighborhoods north of Miami. “It was so celebratory— people knew we were in a pandemic and weren’t supposed to hug, but people were hugging and dancing in the streets, in their masks.”
Migrants arriving after May 21 are not covered, the Department of Homeland Security said, including those who are presenting themselves at the U.S.-Mexico border.
“For Haitians who are in this country, now they get a reprieve from having to return to an unstable situation,” said Allen Orr Jr., an immigration lawyer and president-elect of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “And they get work authorization.”
The decision reverses a…
