July 29, 2025

Contact: media@haitianbridge.org , info@haitianbridge.org

San Diego, CA  — Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA) stands in support of the letter led by Senators Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) to Secretaries Marco Rubio (State) and Kristi Noem (DHS), which challenges the Trump administration’s termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians and probes troubling developments involving a U.S. private security (PMC) contract in Haiti. The letter was co-signed by Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Cory Booker (D-N.J.)

Secretary Kristi Noem initially determined  that Haiti no longer meets statutory conditions for TPS, and moved to terminate Haiti’s TPS by September 2, 2025. However, a federal court  on July 15, 2025 ruled in Haitian Evangelical Clergy Ass’n v. Trump that any termination cannot take effect before February 3, 2026.

The Secretary’s decision to terminate TPS  for more than 500k Haitian nationals currently living in the U.S. and paying taxes, contradicts mounting evidence of Haiti’s continuing humanitarian collapse. According to congressional assessments and UN data, armed gangs control as much as 90 percent of Port au Prince,  with over 5,600 reported killings  in 2025 alone. Nearly 5.5 million people—approximately half the country—need humanitarian aid, with 1.6 million facing catastrophic food insecurity and more than 1.3 million internally displaced. Keep in mind, Haiti does not manufacture weapons. Most of the guns being used by gang members are retrieved through illicit flow of weapons into the Island primarily from the United States.

Simultaneously, a U.S. private military contractor led by Erik Prince—founder of Blackwater —is reportedly operating in Haiti under contract to Haiti’s transitional government. The contract reportedly includes armed drone capabilities, weapons shipments, and plans to deploy additional U.S. mercenaries this summer. Meanwhile, the Kenyan led mission financed primarily by the U.S. government has been ineffective. In fact, the crime rate has increased since their deployment to the island.

These developments raise urgent concerns as mentioned in the letter:

• Are these activities of the private U.S. security company compliant with U.S. arms export rules under ITAR or the Arms Export Control Act?
• How can DHS justify ending TPS as conditions “improve,” while State condones militarized operations that signal instability and violence ?

Guerline Jozef, Executive Director, Haitian Bridge Alliance, Issued the Following Statement:

“This is state-sponsored gaslighting at its worst. The U.S. cannot claim Haiti is ‘safe’ while arming private mercenaries to patrol Haitian streets—it’s imperialism in real time. Ending TPS for Haitians is not just cruel—it’s a racist, calculated attack on Black immigrants, designed to appease white nationalist fear and fuel a deportation machine rooted in anti-Blackness. Our communities are not disposable pawns in America’s foreign policy experiments. We demand an end to this violent hypocrisy and a complete dismantling of this inhumane system.”

HBA’s demands

Haitian Bridge Alliance echoes the senators’ call and demands:

• Immediate reversal of Secretary Noem’s decision to terminate TPS for Haiti.
• Full transparency regarding the legal basis for declaring Haiti safe even as bloodshed escalates.
• Detailed answers about U.S. PMC operations in Haiti, including formal assessments under arms-export and human rights laws.
• Congressional oversight over interagency coordination and consistency between immigration and foreign policy

ABOUT HAITIAN BRIDGE ALLIANCE

Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA), also known as “The Bridge”, is a grassroots community organization that advocates for fair and humane immigration policies, foreign policy, and provides migrants and immigrants with humanitarian, legal, and social services, with a particular focus on Black migrants, the Haitian community, women and girls, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and survivors of torture and other human rights abuses. HBA also seeks to elevate the issues unique to Black migrants and builds solidarity and collective movement toward policy change. Anpil men chay pa lou (“Many hands make the load light”). Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook: @haitianbridge