The Biden administration will extend Temporary Protective Status — or TPS — to Haitians who have recently arrived in the U.S. The status is given to citizens of about a dozen countries determined to be unsafe for return. It provides temporary protection from deportation and a work permit. 

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced Haiti would be re-added to the list. Haitians present in the U.S. on or before Nov. 6 of this year are eligible for the status. 

Mayorkas said political instability, environmental disaster and gang violence in Haiti had spurred the latest re-designation. 

But it’s a move rights advocates have long called for, as Haiti deals with the fallout of a major earthquake and presidential assassination in 2021. 

Despite those calls, thousands of Haitians have already been sent back to their country under the pandemic-era protocol Title 42. 

TPS was last extended for Haiti in August 2021, and Haitians were required to have been in the U.S. since June of that year to qualify.