The Trump administration on Thursday cut protections for hundreds of thousands of Haitians in the United States, putting them on track to be targeted for deportation this summer, according to government documents and an official with the Department of Homeland Security.

The decision was signed this week by Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, and is the latest in President Donald Trump’s sweeping crackdown on immigration, including people whom the Biden administration had authorized to remain in the country.

The Haitians affected by the decision had been living in the United States under Temporary Protected Status, which is intended to help people in the United States who cannot return safely and immediately to their countries because of a natural disaster or an armed conflict. More than 500,000 Haitians in the United States are eligible for the status.

Before he left office, President Joe Biden had granted them an 18-month extension of their deportation protections. On Thursday, Noem revoked that extension — meaning those protections will now expire in August instead of next February.

Noem must then decide whether she will end protections for Haitians altogether, a move that appears likely. Trump and other critics of Temporary Protected Status say it is not being used as intended, instead serving as a pathway to stay in the country indefinitely.

Some Haitian migrants have had the protections since 2010, when an earthquake hit the country and the Obama administration first extended that status to its citizens.

Last month, the Trump administration announced that Venezuelans would lose their protected status beginning in April. It was a blow to 600,000 people who believed they would not only be protected from deportation but also provided work permits until at least the fall of 2026.

Trump had signaled that such a move was in the cards for Haitian immigrants with the status. “Absolutely I’d revoke it,” Trump said in an October interview with the channel News Nation following false claims he spread about Haitians in Ohio eating pets.

A homeland security official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the agency had cut the protections by six months because they did not want to let the final decision languish.

Already, advocates for immigrants are challenging the Trump administration’s cuts to the TPS program in federal court.