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NASSAU, Bahamas, CMC – The Bahamas government says it will no longer allow Haitian nationals into the country for the purpose of applying for a visa to visit the United States.
A brief statement from the Office of the Prime Minister noted that in June this year, the United States issued a policy “fully restricting and limiting the entry of Haitian nationals to the United States”.
Nassau said that in light of that policy, a new announcement that immigrant visa applications by Haitians to the United States can only be processed at the US Embassy in Nassau “will result in no additional entries to The Bahamas for the purpose of US visa applications. Because US policy fully restricts entry to their country by Haitian nationals, we will not grant entry to The Bahamas for the purpose of applying for a US visa,” the statement said.
The announcement by the Philip Davis government comes even as New York Attorney General Letitia James is leading a coalition of 18 attorneys general in the United States defending the legal status of over 250,000 Haitian immigrants who fled the situation in the French-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country and are now under threat of being deported from the United States.
In an amicus brief filed in a case brought by a group of Haitian immigrants in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, the coalition argues that the Trump administration’s moves to revoke Temporary Protected Status (TPS) from Haitian immigrants are illegal.
They said it will also endanger hundreds of thousands of people throughout the country and are asking the court to grant the plaintiffs’ request to postpone the termination of TPS.
Following a devastating earthquake in 2010, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) designated Haiti for TPS protection and extended this protection in the years since, most recently in 2024.
Despite unsafe conditions and political instability in Haiti, James said the Trump administration has moved to end protections for TPS holders, jeopardising the safety of over 250,000 Haitian immigrants, including at least 56,000 living in New York.
The New York Attorney General said as of 2022, more than 200,000 US citizens, including about 87,000 children, were living with a Haitian TPS holder and that revoking TPS from Haitian immigrants “puts hundreds of thousands of families like these in an impossible position.”
