menu_open Columnists
We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

Steven Roberts: Trump’s Haiti policy morally indefensible, economically stupid

6 0
02.08.2026

President Trump is kicking out about 350,000 Haitian immigrants who have lived here for many years, raising their children, paying their taxes and contributing to their communities.

His actions are both morally indefensible and economically stupid. Even Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio, a conservative Republican, told PBS: “The policy is wrong.”

In 1990, Congress created a program called Temporary Protected Status, or TPS. It provides a safe haven for refugees fleeing natural disasters or political upheavals in their home countries, and since a massive earthquake devastated Haiti in 2010, migrants from that country have been allowed to live and work here.

It’s true, as the administration argues, that the program was designed to be “temporary,” and that’s why the Supreme Court voted 6 to 3 last June to allow Trump to target Haitians for deportation. The cancellation of their protected status took effect this week.

But practical reality is a more powerful and persuasive argument than abstract legality, and the reality is this: The nation needs these Haitian immigrants. As a New York Times headline reported: “Employers Fear Labor Shortage as Many Immigrants Lose Protected........

© The Saratogian