Haitians in Ohio, mocked by Trump, get a reprieve — but face uncertain future

On a searing Wednesday in July, Vilés Dorsainvil, leader of the Haitian Community Support Center in Springfield, Ohio, drove an hour to the town of Lewis Center, just north of Columbus, to be honored at the Ohio Conference of Community Development’s Annual Summer Meeting. Dorsainvil, clad in business casual and flanked by fellow leaders of the support center, received a plaque recognizing their work to support Haitian immigrants in Springfield, a community that came under attack by Donald Trump and his supporters during the 2024 presidential campaign.

Dorsainvil cradled the plaque as he walked the brick-lined street outside the Nationwide Hotel and Conference Center, but the moment seemed bittersweet. His manner was reserved when he spoke with Salon in the lobby of a nearby conference hall, saying that he was grateful for the recognition he and his colleagues had received for helping members of the Haitian immigrant community acclimate to life in central Ohio — and navigate a deluge of attacks after Trump spread false claims about them during a nationally televised debate last September.

Just a day earlier, Dorsainvil had tried to support some 20 Haitian workers facing layoffs at a company near Springfield after their work authorizations had lapsed, a result of the federal government’s effort to terminate their immigration status. 

The challenge such immigrants face, he said, was “really inhuman. No one — no one — should be going through that tough time when it comes to your survival in the community, while you’re not a criminal or not doing anything wrong.” 

Haitian immigrants in the U.S. are navigating a chaotic mix of relief and foreboding as their futures in the country hang in the balance. Many of the Haitians in Springfield have received temporary protected status or TPS, the result of a humanitarian program enacted by Congress in 1990 under which immigrants from specific designated nations are granted legal status and work authorization in the U.S. due to political unrest, ecological disaster or governmental collapse in their home countries.

The Trump administration wants to end TPS for Haitians, but a federal judge’s ruling against the Department of Homeland Security in July has extended the expiration until February 2026, offering thousands an additional five months to strategize their next move — at least for now.

With DHS likely to appeal the ruling and perhaps seek other ways of terminating Haitians’ protected status, many members of the community feel they are facing a ticking clock. Most say they would not be safe returning to Haiti, where civil society is in chaos, and have few or no other options outside the U.S.

Haitian students at Clark State College in Springfield have broken down in tears in front of him, Dorsainvil said. “They came here believing that they should have had a life, and all of a sudden, everything is turned upside down. The future is so uncertain that they do not know what six months down the road may look like for them.” The judge’s ruling offers “some kind of relief,” he added, but the new deadline of Feb. 3 “is just around the corner.”

The lawsuit against DHS was filed by a group of Haitian evangelical clergy members in New York, seeking a postponement of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s decision to vacate part of the TPS designation extension for Haitian immigrants. The Biden administration’s latest extension was set to expire on Feb. 3, 2026, a date that Noem earlier this year rolled back to Aug. 3, 2025. Then, on July 1, Noem published a notice that DHS would eliminate TPS for Haitians effective Sept. 2.

In a 23-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan ruled that Noem lacked the legal authority to partially vacate a country’s TPS designation and granted the nine Haitian plaintiffs’ request for a postponement of the Aug. 3 deadline, citing the “irreparable injury” they would suffer in “having to prepare to lose their rights five months earlier than they thought legally possible.”

In a statement, DHS press secretary Tricia McLaughlin described Cogan’s decision as a move that “delays justice and seeks to kneecap the President’s constitutionally vested powers under Article II” of the U.S. Constitution. The Trump administration has repeatedly alleged that Article II grants the president nearly unlimited powers, a view that has been partially bolstered by the conservative majority on the Supreme Court.

“Haiti’s TPS was granted following an earthquake that took place over 15 years ago, it was never intended to be a de facto asylum program,” McLaughlin continued. “The Trump administration is restoring integrity to our immigration system to keep our homeland and its people safe, and we expect a higher court to vindicate us in this. We have the law, the facts, and common sense on our side.”

Noem is likely to appeal the decision and attempt to maintain the earlier expiration date, so for now Haitians and other immigrants from TPS-designated countries remain in limbo, according to Sharvari Dalal-Dheini, senior director of government relations for the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

Since Trump’s return to office last January, Dalal-Dheini said, “They’ve been living under fear of, ‘What could happen next to my status, to my life?’ So, yes, this gives them more time. But the question is, really, how long will it buy them?”

Dorsainvil said he believes the Trump administration is trying to squeeze Haitian immigrants toward so-called self-deportation, or voluntary departure from the U.S. But the options for most Haitians are limited. Canada has tightened its immigration pathways, and Brazil, where many Haitians have historically gone for refuge, is refusing to accept more immigrants. For most, he said, going back to Haiti is entirely out of the question.

Though DHS now claims that the humanitarian crisis in Haiti that necessitated a TPS designation no longer exists, the State Department does not seem to agree. It recently reissued a “Level 4: Do Not Travel” advisory for Haiti, urging Americans not to visit the Caribbean nation because of high crime and terrorist activity, continuing civil unrest and limited health care. Haiti remains one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere and has been in sustained political and humanitarian crisis since the assassination of President Jovenal Moïse in 2021. Recent media reports suggest that the government has failed to maintain order, criminal gangs control much of Port-au-Prince, the capital city, and shortages of food and basic supplies are widespread.

Dorsainvil said that the Haitian Community Support Center is still encouraging recipients of TPS and humanitarian parole — a different form of temporary legal status — to apply for political asylum. The Trump administration aims to sharply restrict asylum claims as well.

As for humanitarian parole, in May the Supreme Court lifted a stay on Noem’s March decision to terminate that program, thereby stripping legal status from more than half a million Haitians, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans and Cubans now living in the U.S. 

Dorsainvil is also helping people secure U.S. passports for their American-born children and set up guardianship plans for families in the event a non-citizen parent is deported. The center is also partnering with local advocacy organizations like Springfield Neighbors United and Springfield G92, which work to support the town’s Haitian community, to hold “know your rights” trainings in preparation for ICE raids and to create networks that can mobilize on behalf of detainees.  

“Regardless of what has been happening, we have to keep going,” Dorsainvil said. “At the end of the day, we have ourselves to feed, we have rent to pay, we have utility bills to pay, we have our kids to send to school.” 

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Carl Ruby, senior pastor of Central Christian Church and a leader of Springfield G92, a coalition of 20 churches and faith-based groups who seek to provide physical refuge for anyone who needs it, told Salon that the group is focusing its current efforts on helping families with children, while two churches are preparing to offer shelter after the Feb. 3 expiration date. The organization held a “Love Thy Neighbor” rally this weekend outside Springfield’s city hall plaza to show solidarity with the Haitian community, platforming nearly 20 speakers and asking attendees to donate diapers and other infant supplies.

Springfield G92’s efforts are “trying to send the message loud and clear that the faith community is against this,” Ruby said in a phone interview. “We feel that we have a moral obligation to oppose this peacefully, but as strongly as we can.”

The fear in Springfield prior to Judge Cogan’s ruling was palpable, Ruby said. But since the decision, what’s left is a temporary sense of relief: He says ICE has told him it has no current plans to carry out enforcement actions, but that could change at any moment. The talk of mass deportation and anti-immigrant rhetoric coming from the White House and its supporters has not ended.

This entire situation “has inflicted incredible damage to our community,” Ruby said. “It’s hurt our businesses. It’s hurting our tax revenue. It is inflaming some of the white supremacy groups that are around. It’s been very harmful to our community.”

Ruby ended with a direct message to President Trump. “We understand that border security is really important. We understand that deporting violent criminals is important,” he said. “But we cannot be supportive of deporting people who came here legally and whose lives are at risk if they’re sent back to Haiti.”