The US Department of Homeland Security terminated Monday a program that gave some 50,000 Haitian immigrants temporary protection in the United States, although the decision will only take effect in 18 months.

The move came "after a review of the conditions upon which the country's original designation were based and whether those extraordinary but temporary conditions prevented Haiti from adequately handling the return of their nationals," the department said in a statement.

Haitian immigrants received Temporary Protected Status after a 2010 earthquake that devastated the already impoverished Caribbean nation.