Protected status ends for thousands of Haitians in Massachusetts: "This is going to be a nightmare"
Carline Desire is bracing for the worst. The executive director of the Association of Haitian Women in Boston is no longer focused on educating Haitian immigrants but on their survival as Temporary Protected Status or TPS officially expired for roughly 300,000 Haitians in the United States.
"It's like, oh my God, this is going to be a nightmare," Desire said. "Those who had food stamps, they don't have it anymore. And it's the same thing for health insurance."
TPS was created to provide immigration relief and work permits to those from countries facing armed conflict. TPS for Haitians was ended by the Trump administration, a move upheld by the Supreme Court.
Families face difficult choice
Now, Desire says the families she serves are facing the difficult choice of returning to Haiti, a country overrun by violent gangs, or staying in the United States and facing deportation. She told WBZ-TV that she is concerned about the separation of families since children of Haitian immigrants have been born in the United States.
"You'd rather your brother, your sister, an auntie, grandma taking care of your children instead of the kids being taken by the Department of Children and Families," she said.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement sources and federal documents obtained by CBS, the agency has made plans to ramp up operations to arrest Haitians.
"DHS does not discuss ongoing or future operations. Temporary Protected Status is exactly that—temporary," a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement. "What we would say now is it's closing time which means you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here."
Impact on Massachusetts economy
The potential removal of Haitians from the country also has implications for Massachusetts' economy, specifically the healthcare and human services sectors.
There were more than 45,000 immigrants under TPS in the Commonwealth, according to Governor Maura Healey. The Massachusetts Senior Care Association estimates that 2,000 individuals may lose work authorization.
Chris White, the president and CEO of Road to Responsibility, a nonprofit which serves over a thousand people with intellectual disabilities, told WBZ he was forced to let go of 19 workers who lost their TPS status.
"We had people coming in the office crying or calling up being very upset and not knowing what to do, where to go," White said.
White says the positions were primarily direct care positions and some of the workers had been with the organization for 10 years. Now, Road to Responsibility is replacing those staff members with overtime and a temporary staffing agency.
"That's $40 an hour for us to pay for those folks, for which we're only getting reimbursed through our state contracts $21 an hour," White said.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed an extension of TPS for Haitians in the spring, but the measure fell flat in the Senate. Politicians across the aisle are now putting pressure on the Senate, including Governor Maura Healey.
"I commend the House of Representatives for passing An Act to require the Secretary of Homeland Security to designate Haiti for temporary protected status (H.R.1689) and urge the Senate to take similar action and pass legislation, allowing Haitians in our communities to continue to meet critical workforce needs and contribute to our economy," Healey wrote in a letter to Senate leadership.
