Trump administration gives 59,000 Haitians 18 months to leave the U.S.

(Image credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke announced Monday that roughly 59,000 Haitians living in the United States who have been protected from deportation since 2010 have 18 months to leave the United States.

Haitians who came to the U.S. after a devastating earthquake hit Haiti in 2010 have been safe under a program known as Temporary Protected Status, enacted by Congress in the 1990s to help large groups of undocumented people who fled to the U.S. from natural disasters and wars. More than 30,000 of the affected Haitians live in Florida, and thousands of others live in New York City. Duke is giving the Haitians until July 22, 2019, to leave.

In May, when White House Chief of Staff John Kelly led the Department of Homeland Security, he said conditions in Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere, had improved enough that the U.S. should stop granting Haitians temporary protection. He extended the program for another six months, but warned that those affected should start preparing to return to Haiti, the Los Angeles Times reports.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.