From Haiti, human rights advocates detail dire situation on the island

On Monday, Feb. 3, Temporary Protected Status was supposed to expire for roughly 90,000 Haitians living in Florida, which would have stripped them of the ability to work legally and placed them at risk of deportation to a country human rights groups describe as increasingly dangerous.

For many, returning is not just uncertain — it feels impossible.

“I don’t have a place to go in Haiti. I don’t have a house,” said Marie Shirley Sanon, a certified nurse in South Florida. “I can say I don’t have a country. The country is finished. Every day, people die. They kidnap people. They burn people alive. Imagine?”

Despite a judge’s ruling in favor of TPS recipients, advocates warn that conditions in Haiti have deteriorated sharply, leaving thousands fearful of what comes next.

Inside a country in crisis

Violence has become part of daily life in Haiti, escalating dramatically since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021. Gangs now control large parts of the capital, Port-au-Prince, forcing families to flee and live in makeshift shelters. 

Human rights groups say the situation on the ground is dire.

A 29-year-old mother of four, now living in one of those shelters in Port-au-Prince, told the Associated Press she was attacked and raped while shopping for salt. 

“One of them put his hand in my mouth,” she said in Haitian Creole. “The others took turns.”

According to the United Nations, more than 1.4 million people have been displaced across Haiti as gang violence and political instability worsen. Doctors Without Borders says it is “alarmed and outraged” by what it calls the overwhelming severity of sexual and gender-based violence.

“Since 2022, cases of sexual violence have tripled,” said Diana Manilla, Chief of Mission for Doctors Without Borders in Haiti.

When TPS is revoked for Haitians, the healthcare industry in South Florida is expected to be impacted.

‘They terrorize the population’

Pierre Esperance, executive director of the National Human Rights Defence Network, says while Haitian police have stepped up operations against gangs in recent months, they lack the equipment and resources to regain control.

“The gangs burn houses of poor people,” Esperance said. “They burn churches and hospitals. What they do is terrorize the population.”

He says the violence cannot be separated from the collapse of Haiti’s political and judicial institutions, leaving the country without a functioning system to protect its citizens.

Last week, the United Nations Security Council unanimously approved a resolution extending its political mission in Haiti through January 2027, signaling ongoing international concern over stability on the island.

A political crossroads

Haiti is currently governed by a transitional presidential council, but U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that the council must be dissolved by Saturday. The United States is backing Haiti’s current prime minister as pressure mounts to restore order.

Esperance says this moment makes deportations especially dangerous.

“I would suggest the administration extend TPS for at least another six months,” he said, “until the security situation has improved.”

For families in Florida now counting down the hours, the uncertainty is overwhelming — caught between a future in limbo and a homeland many no longer recognize as safe.