DHS chief says migrants in US should secure permanent status or leave

Source: USA Today/Reuters

Updated June 28, 2026, 4:29 p.m. ET


WASHINGTON ‒ Migrants in the United States on temporary protected status should seek permanent residence or leave for their home countries, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said on June 28.

The remarks to CNN's "State of the Union" program follow last week's split Supreme Court decision allowing President Donald Trump's administration to strip hundreds of thousands of Haitian and Syrian immigrants of a humanitarian status that protects them from deportation to home countries plagued by conflict and destitution.

"Either try to fill out the paperwork and be here underneath a permanent status, or we'll help you get back to your country," Mullin said. "We'll actually give you a plane ticket, plus roughly $2,100 to help you reestablish when you get there, but temporary protective status, according to the courts and in its name itself, is not permanent status."

Federal law allows the administration to grant temporary legal residency in the United States to people fleeing war, disaster, or other adverse conditions. The status had previously been renewed successively and, despite the move to end these protections, the State Department warns against traveling to either Haiti or Syria, citing widespread violence, crime, terrorism, and kidnapping.

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/06/28/migrants-us-temporary-status-dhs-secretary-markwayne-mullin/90731936007/