This applies to Haitians who were in the U.S. on June 3 and will last until Feb. 3, 2026.
Homeland Secretary Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a DHS release that an 18-month redesignation is appropriate with ongoing conditions in Haiti including violence, insecurity and limited access to healthcare, safety, food and water.
“We are providing this humanitarian relief to Haitians already present in the United States given the conditions that existed in their home country as of June 3, 2024,” Mayorkas said in the release. “In doing so, we are realizing the core objective of the TPS law and our obligation to fulfill it.”
Local officials and aid groups have estimated there are anywhere from 10,000 to 15,000 Haitians living in Springfield. With the redesignation of Haiti for TPS, an estimated 309,000 additional Haitian nationals are allowed to file initial applications for the status.
How could this impact Springfield?
U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, a Dayton Republican who represents the 10th District, including Springfield and southern Clark County, said previously that President Joe Biden’s policy changes to expand TPS eligibility opened the door for thousands of people to come to Springfield without assistance and without additional resources.
Local officials have met with Turner and other policymakers recently to discuss the impact the large increase has had on the area, which includes strain on the health care, schooling and safety systems, Springfield Mayor Rob Rue said.
Rue said having a “continuous flow” of immigrants into the community without additional assistance is causing big concerns.
“Everybody has only so much they can give, and the resources that are being used are the big hearts of our educators, of our health care workers and our safety forces, and within that they only have so much they can give,” Rue said. “When they get to that tipping point of burnout is what I’m concerned about, and that’s what we’re already seeing.”
Thousands of Haitians are in Springfield on TPS but for those on parole, this extension and redesignation may give them an extra layer of protection. Katie Kersh, senior attorney with Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, said the vast majority of Haitians coming here do so through the parole program, which must be followed by another legal basis for staying in the country.
Otherwise, those here only on parole receive dates for removal proceedings, Kersh said.
The previous TPS designation for Haiti was extended Feb. 4, 2023, to Aug. 3, 2024. Kersh said as the situation has worsened in Haiti, ABLE has seen more people seeking legal aid.
“We’ve seen hundreds of people over the past few months, and most of those people do not have TPS,” Kersh said.
If these hundreds of people otherwise meet the TPS requirements, based on their presence, they can apply for the status, Kersh said.
Lindsay Aime, Haitian Community help and support center treasurer and board member, said last month the large majority of people seeking assistance need help with legal matters. He said they are seeing people here under the parole program needing help pursuing TPS or asylum applications, but the community center has a finite number of staff and resources right now.
Aime said in order to fill the need of Haitian Creole interpreters in the immigration court system, he and other staff members want to get accredited.
Vilès Dorsainvil, the community center’s president, said the community center needs lawyers and more legal experts to help the large number of parolees in Springfield.
Credit: Bill Lackey
Credit: Bill Lackey
What are the requirements for TPS?
To qualify for TPS, a person must be from a country designated for TPS or without nationality who last habitually resided in the designated country, file during the open initial registration or re-registration period, have been continuously physically present in the U.S. since the most effective date of the most recent designation date of their country and have been continuously residing in the U.S. since the date specified for their country, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
A person may not be eligible for TPS or to maintain their existing TPS if they have been convicted of a felony or two or more misdemeanors in the U.S., are subject to any mandatory bars to asylum, fail to meet the continuous physical presence and continuous residence in the U.S. requirements, fail to meet initial or late initial TPS registration requirements or they fail without good cause to re-register for TPS, according to USCIS.
Haitians who already had TPS must re-register during the 60-day re-registration period from July 1 through Aug. 30.
While TPS does not provide a direct path to citizenship, those pursuing naturalization often apply for asylum or are sponsored by a family member with citizenship, Kersh said.
Asylum is evaluated based on a person’s individual situation and if they were persecuted or have a fear of persecution. It is difficult to prove and a complicated process, and is becoming even more so in Haiti as violence becomes more political with gangs attempting to overthrow and become the government, similar to the Taliban in Afghanistan, Kersh said.
Humanitarian parole is a temporary entry that is granted when there is an urgent humanitarian need or a compelling emergency for individuals who would otherwise be ineligible for entry into the U.S.
Parole is not a status and does not provide a pathway to citizenship. Those under parole will undergo removal proceedings while they apply for work permits, asylum or other forms of status, Kersh said.
“The courts are being inundated with tens of thousands of cases, and there’s over a million cases pending at the immigration court system nationally, and so it just takes a long time for these cases to process, and then if you lose, you have to appeal and that takes a really long time as well,” Kersh said.
The parole process began in January 2023 and was modeled on the Uniting for Ukraine and Process for Venezuelans and “for certain Haitian nationals to lawfully enter the United States in a safe and orderly manner and be considered for a case-by-case determination of parole.”
Twenty-one states, including Ohio and led by Texas, are suing DHS in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, saying that DHS’s “parole power is exceptionally limited, having been curtailed by Congress multiple times, and can be used only on a case-by-case basis ... "
In March, a judge upheld the parole program, and said Texas and the 20 other states in the lawsuit has not shown they had suffered financial harm because of the program.
The states argue the parole program allows immigrants to obtain advance authorization to enter the United States — “despite no other basis in law for them doing so.”
According to DHS, both Democratic and Republican administrations have used parole authority on “a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit.”
ABLE continues to provide low-cost and free legal services, including legal clinics, Kersh said.
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