As Trump ends TPS, Haitians say returning home would be a 'death sentence'

USA Today

07-07-2025

The Trump administration says conditions in Haiti have improved enough that it is safe for migrants to return to the Caribbean nation. Haitians, Ohio governor disagree.
Thousands of Haitian immigrants living in Ohio on Temporary Protected Status are making plans to leave the country after the Trump administration announced the end of the deportation protection. But they aren't going back to their home country.
The Trump administration says conditions in Haiti have improved enough that it is safe for those living in America with the special temporary status to return to the Caribbean nation. But going back to Haiti is a "death sentence," say community leaders and advocates.
Instead, Haitians living in central Ohio are scrambling to find a safe third country like Canada or Mexico to go to, said Jean Manuel, a Haitian American businessman and advocate who helps some of the approximately 30,000 Haitians living in Columbus.
But that can be difficult, too. To legally immigrate to Canada, they must have family members living there to receive them, said Vilés Dorsainvil, executive director of the Haitian Community Help and Support Center, in Springfield, home to 15,000 to 20,000 Haitian immigrants.
Haitians with TPS, which protects immigrants from certain countries from deportation and allows them to work legally in the United States, will lose that protection as of Sept. 2, according to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.
In February, Noem ended a Biden-era extension of TPS for Haitians that was to expire in February 2026, and, on June 27, she announced the status will officially end on August 3. That means protections will end in September.
As of July 2024, more than 520,000 Haitians were eligible for TPS, according to Homeland Security.
Homeland Security said it has reviewed conditions in Haiti and determined it doesn't meet the requirements for TPS designation. TPS is designated for countries involved in ongoing armed conflict, environmental disaster, epidemics or other extraordinary and temporary conditions, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
A DPS spokesperson said the decision to end TPS for Haitians is meant to ensure the immigration status remains temporary.
The TPS system has been "exploited and abused" for decades, according to a February release from the Department of Homeland Security on ending the Biden administration's extension of TPS.
But Haiti remains unstable, Columbus' Manuel said, disputing the government's claim that conditions have improved there.
"Every neighborhood has a gang, every neighborhood is controlled by a gang member. They're vicious: burning buildings, killing kids, cleaning out neighborhoods," he said. "That's the kind of life they're going to (if they return to Haiti). They're going to a death sentence."
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, recently agreed.
"Haiti is not safe … It's one of the most dangerous places in the world,' DeWine told the Statehouse News Bureau. 'It's a horribly, horribly violent place today, and things have not gotten better. They've actually gotten worse. Those are just the facts.'
Ohio is home to thousands of Haitian immigrants
Springfield's Haitian population gained national attention during the 2024 presidential election when, in a vice presidential debate, Vice President J.D. Vance spread the false rumor that Haitian immigrants there were eating their neighbors' pets.
Community leaders have said most of the thousands of Haitian immigrants in the city are here with legal status — likely TPS — and have moved to the city of about 60,000 in recent years.
Following the rumor, repeated by others including Trump, Springfield schools, businesses and public buildings faced bomb threats and evacuations.
Springfield, Ohio: Trump pledges to deport Haitians in Ohio city, but most are in US legally
DeWine also defended Haitians after Vance's comments.
"They came to Springfield to work," the governor said at the time. "Ohio is on the move and Springfield has really made a great resurgence with a lot of companies coming in."
On June 28, DeWine reportedly said Haitians are critical to the Springfield workforce.
'We talked to the management of those companies, and they basically said, look, if we didn't have these Haitians, we couldn't fill these slots, and we can't produce what we need to produce,' he told Statehouse News.
Manuel agreed, saying that Ohio's Haitians typically work in hotels, factories and supermarkets.
"They are the people that do the hard work."
Since the February announcement that TPS wouldn't remain in place for Haitians for long, employers have laid off Haitian employees, Manuel and Dorsainvil said, knowing they won't be around long. So, in addition to intense fear for their futures, some Haitians with TPS don't have money to feed their families and pay rent, Manuel said.
"The people here, they're here to work and to better their life," Manuel said. They aren't criminals and just seek peaceful places to raise their families and live, he and Dorsainvil said.
Why Haitians have TPS
A 2010 earthquake ‒ which killed more than 220,000 Haitian people and destroyed much of the nation's infrastructure ‒ prompted the federal government to qualify Haitians for TPS.
Since then, the country has experienced "cascading crises," according to the Haitian Bridge Alliance, a nonprofit that advocates for migrant rights.
The Biden administration renewed and extended TPS for Haitians in July 2024, saying gang activity was causing economic, security, political and health crises.
Those conditions have not changed, Guerline Jozef, executive director of Haitian Bridge Alliance said in a statement.
The nation is also plagued by hunger, homelessness and a lack of employment for residents, according to advocates and the United Nations.
Haiti has not had a president since the former one was assassinated in 2021. The country's prime minister resigned in 2024.
The decision to end TPS 'is not just cruel ‒ it's state-sanctioned endangerment,' Jozef said.
'Sending back hundreds of thousands of people to a country overrun by gangs, where hospitals are shuttered and food is scarce, is a direct assault on Black immigrant communities," she continued. "It's not about policy. It's about dehumanization.'
Underserved Communities Reporter Danae King can be reached at [e-mail] or on X at @DanaeKing.