Trump shows some heart

The Trump administration — busy cruelly ratcheting up deportations of undocumented immigrants who are otherwise right with the law, even when they have American-citizen spouses and young children — just got a relatively small piece of immigration policy right. At least, close enough. The Department of Homeland Security Monday struck an imperfect but defensible balance with respect to 50,000 Haitians living in the United States.

After the devastating 2010 earthquake, the U.S. granted Haitians Temporary Protected Status, a reprieve from deportation based on the notion that, given impossibly awful conditions back home, it would be unwise to force people’s immediate return. Every 18 months since, as tragedy after tragedy has struck Haiti — a cholera epidemic, a hurricane — the status has been reviewed and renewed.

Enter Trump, under bipartisan pressure to offer another extension. DHS Secretary John Kelly announced the status would be reupped — but for just six months, in light of an improving economy and the closing of many displaced person camps.

While not ideal, that gives advocates of an extended reprieve time to publicize the legitimate reasons it is warranted, and officials the chance to systematically review the evidence that Haiti is back on its feet, if not quite steady.