Ankle Monitors, Arrests and Lost Jobs: Inside the New Realities Many Haitians in the US Are Facing

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In the weeks since the Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to end deportation protections for roughly 350,000 Haitians, and in the days since a lower court judge took a key legal step that made it official, a new reality has started to come into focus in communities that had been holding out hope for a last-minute reprieve.

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“Now we have no protection,” said Vilès Dorsainvil, co-founder and executive director of the Haitian Community Help and Support Center in Springfield. “Anything can happen any time.”

Federal authorities have been tight-lipped about details of this phase in the administration’s immigration crackdown, repeatedly stating that they won’t discuss ongoing or future operations. They haven’t released data about how many Haitians have been detained since TPS ended. And as of Saturday, advocates who closely track deportation flights hadn’t logged any bound for Haiti in the past two weeks.

But Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said last week that operations targeting Haitian TPS holders were underway.

“We’re going after them right now. … These individuals can either self-deport, or we will arrest you and send you back. It’s that simple,” he told NewsNation on Tuesday.

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At least five people contacted the Haitian Bridge Alliance advocacy organization last week reporting loved ones who were detained across the US, according to Guerline Jozef, the organization’s executive director. Callers reported arrests of former TPS holders, who often were driving when they crossed paths with ICE, in Arizona, California, Indiana and Maryland, she said.

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Residents of one of the nation’s most recent — and well known — Haitian enclaves say they haven’t yet seen an increase in ICE arrests. Springfield drew national attention after President Donald Trump baselessly accused Haitians there of eating pets during a campaign debate in 2024. And some have speculated that the Midwestern city and its some 15,000 Haitians residents would be a focus of arrests after TPS ended.

Leaders in Springfield say the growing ICE presence many fear hasn’t yet materialized. Hundreds of Department of Homeland Security letters arriving in the mail, however, have put the community on edge.

“Please come to the office listed below at the time and place indicated in connection with an official matter,” the letters read, according to a copy Dorsainvil shared with CNN.

Those who’ve reported to ICE offices after receiving the notices have been outfitted with ankle monitors that allow authorities to track their location, Dorsainvil says, and many have been assigned court dates in about a month.

The ankle monitors are part of a frequently used ICE program known as “alternatives to detention.” But Dorsainvil says for many Haitians in Springfield, the devices evoke the painful history of shackles worn during slavery, and that he and other advocates unsuccessfully attempted to convince authorities the monitors weren’t necessary.

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