MIAMI — Betty Versannes is one of the lucky ones: When a powerful earthquake buried Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Jan 12, 2010, she was here, a world away. Her sister and cousin died in the rubble. Her other relatives moved into tents, and some live there still, in a country that is far from recovered.

Days later, recognizing the depth of Haiti’s misery and the complexity of the rebuilding effort, the United States government extended a seldom-used lifeline to Haitians in the United States — temporary protected status, or T.P.S. The program allows people, like Ms. Versannes, who were visiting or were living here illegally before the earthquake to live and work in the United States until conditions back home improved.

More than 58,000 Haitians registered for the program, many in South Florida, which has the largest Haitian community in the country.

That safeguard could end soon. By Tuesday, Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly is expected to announce whether to let Haitians’ temporary protected status expire on July 22 or extend it again. (If he does nothing, it extends six months automatically.) By law, the decision should be based solely on conditions in Haiti — the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere — and its ability to absorb a large wave of returnees, not on immigration policy.