President Trump threatened the decision during his campaign when he targeted the Haitian population in Springfield after falsely saying they had been stealing and eating neighbors’ pets.
The city of Springfield has said although it is impossible to provide an exact number, based on data provided from numerous sources, such as Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles, Springfield City Schools, area healthcare providers and social services agencies, the total immigrant population is estimated to be approximately 12,000 to 15,000 in Clark County.
“This is definitely a concerning news for our community,” said Miguelito Jerome, who ran a Haitian radio station in Springfield. “The thought of losing TPS is weighing crazy on many of us who rely on it for safety and stability. There’s already a lot of uncertainty, and this announcement only adds to the worries.”
Jerome has an American wife and a green card. He said this most recent order follows immigration processes coming to a halt for Springfield’s Haitians. Asylum cases, work permit applications and other legal pathways appear frozen for anyone who came to the country during the previous administration, he said.
Guerna Eugene, who runs a business in Springfield that helps Haitian residents with immigration forms and tax returns, said some people impacted have been in the country for years. Now some are being laid off jobs because they are losing work permits.
“Some of them have had the opportunity to buy homes, so what are you going to do with these people? Some of them have children here,” she said. “It hurts me to see that that’s the action the administration is taking without further thinking about the consequences of it.”
She and Rodolph Paul, community outreach worker for the Clark County Combined Health District, have a message for Springfield’s Haitians: “Don’t panic.”
“Try to do right things because you already know your status, don’t try to get in trouble, Paul said. “If you don’t have any license, don’t drive. And if you drive, don’t drink, a couple things like that. Try to avoid some issues with the government, otherwise do stuff you have to do.”
The Department of Homeland Security said in a news release that it was vacating a Biden administration decision to renew Temporary Protected Status — which gives people legal authority to be in the country but doesn’t provide a long-term path to citizenship — for Haitians.
People with the protection are reliant on the government renewing their status when it expires. Critics, including Republicans and the Trump administration, have said that over time the renewal of the protection status becomes automatic, regardless of what is happening in the person’s home country.
“For decades the TPS system has been exploited and abused,” Homeland Security said in the statement announcing the change. “For example, Haiti has been designated for TPS since 2010. The data shows each extension of the country’s TPS designation allowed more Haitian nationals, even those who entered the U.S. illegally, to qualify for legal protected status.”
Homeland Security said an estimated 57,000 Haitians were eligible for TPS protections as of 2011, but by July of last year, that number had climbed to 520,694.
It’s not immediately clear how quickly they could be deported once their protections expire. Some may apply for other types of protection, and there are logistical challenges to carrying out such large-scale deportations.
Haiti’s migration director, Jean Negot Bonheur Delva, said only 21 Haitians have been deported so far under the Trump administration, but he noted that the group had already been scheduled for deportation under Biden. There were a total of nine flights to Haiti in 2024, according to Witness at the Border, an advocacy group that tracks flight data.
Delva cited worries about the strain of sending people back to a country still reeling from violence and where more than 1 million people are homeless because of gang violence.
“It’s very sad that people who left Haiti to look for a better life elsewhere … will come back,” Delva said. “With the insecurity problem, the lack of resources, they will be miserable.”
More than 5,600 people were reported killed last year in Haiti, according to the U.N. And many of the displaced are living in overcrowded makeshift shelters including abandoned government buildings where rapes are becoming increasingly common.
Gangs control 85% of Haiti’s capital and have launched new attacks to seize control of even more territory. Recent massacres have claimed the lives of hundreds of civilians.
Delva said Haiti’s government recently created a commission to help those deported.
“They are children of Haiti. A mother must receive her children from wherever they are,” he said.
Congress created TPS in 1990 to prevent deportations to countries suffering from natural disasters or civil strife, giving people authorization to work in increments of up to 18 months at a time.
Toward the end of the Biden administration, 1 million immigrants from 17 countries were protected by TPS, including people from Venezuela, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Sudan, Ukraine and Lebanon.
The Trump administration has already moved to end the protections for Venezuelans.
Two nonprofit groups Thursday filed a lawsuit challenging that decision.
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Associated Press writer Evens Sanon in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, contributed to this report.
