WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Homeland Security Department announced Monday that it is ending a temporary residency permit program which has allowed some 59,000 Haitians to live and work in the United States since a 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit the Caribbean nation in January 2010.
Since U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January, the department has terminated temporary permit programs for Sudan and Nicaragua. It also postponed until next July a decision on how to deal with a similar program for 86,000 residents from Honduras.
Department officials said Monday that conditions in Haiti have improved significantly since the quake, so the benefit will be extended one last time until July 2019 to give Haitians time to prepare to return home.
The latest move does not affect thousands of Haitians who were taken in by Brazil and other South American countries after the quake and began making their way to the United States last year, according to an ABC news report.
In the wake of the quake that caused mass devastation in the Caribbean nation, then U.S. President Barack Obama granted the 18-month protection status for Haitians in America and renewed it every time it ran out.
In May, the Homeland Security Department, making a decision 60 days before the temporary status for the Haitians was set to expire, extended the program for only six months, urging Haitians under the program to prepare to go home.
The temporary status covers some 435,000 people from nine countries ravaged by natural disasters or war, who came to the United States legally or otherwise.
Haiti remains one of the poorest countries in the world.
