Why is Trump so focused on Haiti?

Linda Joseph holds a candle during a vigil at the Little Haiti Cultural Complex after a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from ending temporary immigration status, or TPS, for Haitians, Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026, in North Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky) ((AP Photo/Lynne Sladky))Social SharingLISTEN | FRONT BURNER:Front Burner36:28Why is Trump so focused on Haiti?For years, hundreds of thousands of Haitians living in the United States have been protected from deportation under a program known as Temporary Protected Status, or TPS. But, as of August, that protection is over as the Trump administration moves to deport Haitians en masse to a country still facing extraordinary political and humanitarian upheaval.

The decision to end TPS comes after years of increasingly hostile rhetoric about Haitian migrants, including the false claim, amplified by Donald Trump and other Republicans, that Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, were eating people's cats and dogs.

So, what explains the U.S.'s now centuries-long fascination with Haiti, and how does Donald Trump's contemporary immigration regime connect to that story? 

Marlene Daut is a writer, scholar and author of several books on Haitian history, and a professor of French and African Diaspora Studies at Yale University. She is our guest today. 

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