The Trump administration ended Temporary Protected Status for some 500,000 Haitians Thursday, meaning that as of early August, Haitians here with that status will no longer will be allowed to live and work in the U.S.
The vast majority of Haitians under TPS status live and work in Florida.
About 30,000 Haitians under TPS, humanitarian parole or asylum are in Southwest Florida. They are working in health care, hospitality and the housing market.
A mass deportation could have widespread impacts around the state and country.
Even more perilous is what it means for those losing this long-held status. Undocumented Haitians in the US were granted Temporary Protected Status after a devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti killed more than 100,000 and left millions without food and water.
Department of Homeland Security determined it would be too dangerous to those here without documents to return home due to wide-spread violence and threat of disease. Every few years, the status of these Haitian nationals is reconsidered.
Violence, and many of the same problems, remain pervasive to this day in Haiti.
In July, the Biden administration extended the status. The Trump administration rescinded it with a new end date of Aug. 3.
Beatrice Jacquet Castor, one of the founders of the Haitian American Community Coalition, is devastated by the Trump administration decision. She’s encouraging Haitians to carry their paperwork with them at all times. And she’s warning Americans to be prepared for the impacts of a mass deportation.
"They are our hotel workers. They are our housekeepers, restaurant construction. And they work in the fields too. So those are the people that are coming here, and they are doing those type of jobs," she said. "They do contribute to the economy. They pay taxes. ...When you remove these people out of here, then you're really impacting the workforce."
Because many have been in the country for 10 to 15 years under TPS, the option of filing for asylum is long past, Jacquet castor said.
"In all reality, they have a slim chance of finding another immigration program to apply for, that they qualify to apply for," she said.
This is the second time the Trump administration has revoked an extension granted by the Biden administration. TPS protections for some 350,000 Venezuelans is set to expire in April. More could be forthcoming.
"It's not that they want to stay here illegally, but they're just fighting for their lives there. They all they want to do is to be here and just have a decent life," Jacquet castor said. "...All they're trying to do is stay alive, and that's why they're here. And with all of this going on, if they had a home to go to, they would pack their bags and go, but unfortunately, there's not a home for them to go back to."
She called the recent decision inhumane.
"Instead of taking them back home, it would just be better that you dig a grave and tell them to go in there and then bury them alive. ... And then that's it. That's pretty much, it's the same thing."
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