The State Department has an unusually grim request

By Jacqueline Charles July 17, 2026 5:30

Haiti has been under a State Department Level 4: Do Not Travel warning since 2020.

The advisory comes as Haiti remains on the State Department’s highest-level “Do Not Trust” travel advisory, and as the administration moves to end immigration protections for more than 300,000 Haitians and begin returning them to the Caribbean country. The recommendation to leave DNA samples and dental records behind before traveling has been added alongside longstanding warnings for U.S. citizens to be wary of kidnappings, violent crime, terrorist activity, civil unrest and limited health care. In addition to Haiti, it also applies to other high-risk areas, per the State Department’s website outlining recommendations on local laws and U.S. assistance in high-risk countries. The stark language was first highlighted in March in U.S. Supreme Court filings by lawyers challenging the Trump administration’s efforts to end TPS for Haitians. In addition to telling justices that ending the deportation protections “would place TPS holders in mortal danger,” plaintiffs’ lawyers pointed to the travel advisory on DNA samples and dental records as evidence of how even the administration views Haiti as being unsafe.

“The idea of leaving DNA samples and dental records demonstrates how outrageous it is that” top Trump adviser Stephen Miller, President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio “would consider sending people back to Haiti,” said Miami-immigration attorney Ira Kurzban, whose firm is part of the team that challenged the Department of Homeland’s termination of Haiti’s TPS designation. READ MORE: As deportation flight lands in Haiti, U.S. says two planeloads a week will start soon Lawyers for the plaintiffs, who eventually lost their challenge when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of allowing the Department of Homeland Security to end the protections, had argued that Haiti’s TPS termination, like that of another dozen nonwhite majority countries, was motivated by racial and national-origin bias. It also violated the Administrative Procedure Act, they said, because Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had failed to consult with the State Department before making her decision. “If Haiti is that dangerous why are we sending people back to Haiti unless it is the continuation of Trump and DHS’ racist policy as directed by Miller and as detailed in the district court opinion?” Kurzban said.

Former State Department officials said they had never seen such language in the department’s travel advisory. Several reacted to the recommendation with adjectives like “crazy” and “wild.” One former official noted that the request is more commonly associated with U.S. troops deploying to combat zones. “We have just a disjointed policy,” Keith Mines, a former diplomat who served in Haiti and as vice president at the U.S. Institute of Peace., said about U.S. policy toward Haiti, which loses its TPS designation on July 24. “On the one hand, we’re trying to help; on the other, undercutting our own efforts at every opportunity.”