US President Donald Trump and Republican Senator from Ohio JD Vance. (Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images.)
The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments this week to decide whether the Trump administration can end the conflict Temporary protected status program for citizens of Haiti and Syria. The ruling is expected to be made in slow June or early July.
The hearing found that the court would likely support President Trump’s actions to strip Haitians and Syrians of legal status.
The U.S. Supreme Court appears to agree with Trump’s actions to strip Haitians and Syrians of legal status
About 30,000 Haitians with temporary status live in central Ohio and the British Isles an estimated 12,000 to 15,000 Haitians call Springfield while having Temporary Protected Status, Citizenship, and other legal statuses.
Springfield became a flashpoint during the 2024 election when Donald Trump and JD Vance spread racist lies there about Haitian immigrants.
Viles Dorsainvil, executive director of the Haitian Support Center in Springfield, came to the United States from Haiti in 2020.
“The question before the court is not merely a legal one — it is a moral one, about who we are as a nation and how we treat the people who come together in our communities,” Dorsainvil said during a news conference outside the U.S. Supreme Court.
“We call for a decision that reflects both the law and our shared values of justice, stability and compassion,” he said.
“Depriving these communities of protection would cause unnecessary harm, separate families and disrupt local economies across the country.”
Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is a federal program established by Congress in 1990 that provides people from certain countries destabilized by conflict or natural disasters the opportunity to live and work in the United States for a specified period of time.
Haiti is currently plagued by gang violence and instability, with many fleeing the compact Caribbean country to the United States.
Many refugees have no homes in Haiti to return to and fear for the safety of their families if they are forced to return.
Syria was first granted TPS in 2012, athere about 6,000 Syrians have temporary status.
Syria is experiencing ongoing armed conflict, terrorist violence, kidnappings, hostage-taking and crime.
The U.S. Department of State currently has a Level 4 “Do Not Travel” advisory. Haiti AND Syria.
Haitians were initially granted temporary protected status after the 2010 Haiti earthquake that killed 222,570 people.
The Biden administration extended Temporary Protected Status to Haitians in 2021 following the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse.
“This administration is not above the law and should not be able to ignore Congress and bypass courts conducting the largest document expungement operation in American history,” Sharif Aly, president of the International Refugee Assistance Project, said during a news conference.
“The law is not optional,” he said.
The TPS program for Haitians was scheduled to expire on February 3, but U.S. District Court Judge Ana C. Reyes blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to revoke the temporary protected status of approximately 330,000 Haitians living in the United States.
The Trump administration quickly appealed this decision and lower courts blocked his efforts to end Haiti’s temporary protected status.
Springfield’s population has been failing for decades as manufacturing jobs have disappeared, but Haitian immigrants have added more than 10,000 workers to Clark County’s workforce.
About 60,000 people live in Springfield, and Haitians make up about a quarter of the population.
Deporting Haitians to Springfield would eliminate approximately $300 million in Clark County annual expenses, with estimated economic losses expected to exceed $400 million.
Deema Abdo, co-founder of Immigrants Act Now, said people with temporary status had lived in the shadow of uncertainty for too long.
“(Uncertainty) looks like parents who don’t sleep at night knowing they can’t protect their children from what’s going to happen next,” she said during a news conference.
“It seems like you go to work every day not knowing if today will be the day they tell you you don’t belong anymore.”
TPS doesn’t give people shortcuts, Abdo said.
“It gave them a chance, a chance to live with dignity, a chance to work hard, a chance to contribute, to build something real,” she said.
“To take it away now, to send people back into danger and instability, which is not a political solution. It is abandonment, which is tearing families apart, tearing people away from the communities they helped build.”
The Trump administration has revoked TPS status from 13 countries – Afghanistan, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Haiti, Honduras, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen.
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