In Springfield, Haitian Immigrants Quietly Prepare for an Exodus

Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, have been reeling since President Donald Trump won the election — his threats of mass deportation looming over their already uncertain futures. Now, the administration’s decision to rescind the extension of their temporary legal status has put them on an expedited timeline to lose their protections and everything they’ve built in their new home.

First shoved into the spotlight during Trump’s September 2024 presidential debate, residents, since the late February announcement on TPS, have been flocking to the Haitian Support Center in this rust-belt city of some 60,000 people, according to Viles Dorsainvil, the center’s executive director. Many have called or stopped by in search of guidance on what to do next or what their options are, he said, but his advice is limited.

“I continue to encourage them to know their rights,” Dorsainvil told Salon. He’s advised, for those who can, applying for a different form of legal immigration status. “That would be the best course of action — [and] continue to do what they’re doing. That’s it. I can’t normally tell them anything different.”

Some of the city’s Haitian residents are planning to relocate to Canada or elsewhere, while others are waiting to see how Trump’s crackdown on immigration plays out. Dorsainvil doesn’t know anyone planning to go back to Haiti, he added, but as unlikely as it is, it’s still an option.

With just under five months before they lose legal status, everyone is on edge. One Haitian TPS recipient who previously spoke to Salon declined to talk, pointing to widespread concerns in the community over their future in the country..

In late February, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it had revoked the extensions of TPS for Venezuelan and Haitian immigrants in the United States. TPS, granted to applicants regardless of their legal status from designated countries with immense political, violent or environmental upheaval, allows those who receive it to live and work legally in the U.S. for a renewable period of up to 18 months. More than 500,000 Haitian citizens were eligible for TPS as of June 2024, according to DHS data, including around 15,000 recipients living in Springfield. Unless re-extended or protected in federal court, that status will now expire on Aug. 3.

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But Julie Nemecek, an immigration lawyer working with Haitian clients in Springfield, argued that the administration has made the decisions arbitrarily, failing to account for the conditions in Haiti and Venezuela and acting out of racism.

“They’re just making these anti-immigrant decisions to scare people, to shock people, to implement white supremacy, Project 2025, whatever you want to call it,” she told Salon in a phone interview. {snip}

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In many ways, Haitian immigrants’ hands are now tied, she explained. While many would likely have a viable case for asylum, the timeline for approval isn’t conducive to reobtaining status quickly. They’d spend a few weeks preparing an application, then wait 150 days followed by a 30-day adjudication period, leaving six months until they can receive work authorization. Even if they rushed to apply now, the soonest they could receive asylum would be in October and by then it’d be too late, she said.

Complicating matters more, she added, is that a number of her clients are resistant to apply for asylum because they believe it’s a comparatively “degrading” legal status to have.

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Three immigrant rights organizations — Haitian Americans United, Venezuelan Association of Massachusetts and UndocuBlack Network — and four individual recipients filed a lawsuit in Boston federal court earlier this month challenging Noem’s decision. In addition to arguing that the move is unlawful and racially biased, they asked the court to halt the revocations, which would also terminate TPS for Venezuelan immigrants on April 7.

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