Haitian immigrants who fled chaos and violence to start new lives in the U.S. have wondered if and when the Trump administration would start deporting them. They got their answer Friday, June 27: Their Temporary Protected Status ends Sept. 2.
The U.S first gave immigrants from Haiti TPS in 2010 after an earthquake destroyed much of the country, and their TPS was repeatedly renewed since then, most recently by President Joe Biden. Some have lived here 15 years.
Today Haiti endures a violent “free fall” four years after its president was assassinated, but the Friday order ending TPS said the country is now safe enough for immigrants to return home.
The claim that Haiti is safe contradicts a June 4 presidential proclamation.
The claim that Haiti is safe contradicts a June 4 presidential proclamation that placed a travel ban on Haiti and 11 other troubled nations. His executive order, “Restricting the Entry of Foreign Nationals to Protect the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats,” acknowledged the Caribbean nation’s current troubles: “Haiti lacks a central authority with sufficient availability and dissemination of law enforcement information necessary to ensure its nationals do not undermine the national security of the United States.”
And the U.S. State Department has issued a “Do Not Travel” advisory for Haiti, citing “robbery, carjackings, sexual assault and kidnappings for ransom” and saying, “U.S. citizens have been victims and have been hurt or killed.”
Last fall, candidate Donald Trump falsely told 70 million Americans watching a presidential debate that Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, were eating people’s cats and dogs, leading to dozens of bomb threats and death threats and closures of schools and businesses.
Trump revisited his complaint in March, claiming Haitian immigrants had turned the city into a “Third World Nightmare.”
Not true, said Springfield’s Republican mayor and the state’s Republican governor.
“The greatest hardship we have faced in the past six months is the mischaracterization of our city,” said Mayor Rob Rue, who has pleaded for his Haitian residents to be treated humanely.
But the Trump administration has forged ahead with policies critics say punish Haitians:
- In February, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem vacated a Biden-era policy that allowed Haitians with Temporary Protected Status to stay in the U.S. until February 2026. Noem said they all must leave by Aug. 3, 2025. Friday’s action pushes that date back to Sept. 2.
- In June, the Trump administration said it was sending removal notifications to the TPS immigrants, telling them to leave and offering $1,000 exit bonuses to speed the process.
Vilès Dorsainvil
Springfield’s Haitian community feels trapped and confused, said Vilès Dorsainvil, president of the Haitian Community Help and Support Center. Nearly 15,000 Haitians came to Springfield in recent years, many of them recruited by local businesses to help the financially troubled city.
Haitians are trying to figure out next steps while praying they won’t return to Haiti. Some already have left Springfield.
TPS began in 1990 to help qualifying immigrants enduring exceptional hardships, such as civil war, armed strife and natural disasters. Trump is trying to choke off TPS as part of his agenda to restrict nearly all immigration.
Currently, more than half a million immigrants from Haiti, Venezuela and Cuba are here under TPS. Pro-immigrant groups, some of them faith-based, have filed suit to stop Trump’s efforts to shut down TPS.
In March, the Supreme Court ruled that Trump has the authority to overturn TPS extensions authorized by President Joe Biden. The court ruled again May 30, saying Trump had the authority to cancel another humanitarian immigration program.
The evangelical group World Relief criticized the court’s May 30 ruling, saying 80% of those now facing deportation are Christians: “This decision will have devastating effects for nearly half a million people who entered the U.S. lawfully after being sponsored by family, friends or churches, putting them at risk of deportation to countries facing humanitarian crises.”
Trump’s travel ban went into effect June 9, the day the Southern Baptist Convention’s National Haitian Fellowship gathered in Dallas as part of the SBC’s annual meeting.
Adam Banks
Adam Banks, pastor of Springfield’s First Baptist Church, an American Baptist congregation, says the arrival of the Haitians gave Springfield a “Samaritan situation.” He says the community members should be Good Samaritans to their new neighbors, who struggle with sadness and worry.
In April, leaders of 13 Southern Baptist ethnic groups issued a statement supporting immigration enforcement while cautioning that “enforcement must be accompanied with compassion that doesn’t demonize those fleeing oppression, violence, and persecution.”
Democrats in the U.S. Senate have crafted legislation — the Safe Environment from Countries Under Repression and Emergency (SECURE) Act — to protect TPS and other programs, but its passage is far from certain.
The Trump administration also wants to redirect $250 million in government funding intended for foreign assistance and instead use it to pay for deporting Haitians, Ukrainians and others to active conflict zones.
And while immigration is being restricted for many groups, Trump has welcomed — and immigration officials have speeded — the arrival of white Afrikaners from South Africa, claiming they are the victims of racial discrimination by the country’s majority Black population.
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