Florida Haitians with TPS fear deportation as caregivers and families face growing uncertainty
The Florida Immigrant Coalition says roughly 113,000 health care workers in Florida are Haitians with Temporary Protected Status (TPS), underscoring the potential impact changes to the immigration program could have on the state's workforce and the communities those workers serve.
North Miami is home to one of the largest Haitian communities outside of Haiti. CBS News Miami spoke with a Haitian certified nursing assistant who has built a life in South Florida but now faces uncertainty over how long she will be allowed to remain in the United States.
The nurse, who lives in North Miami and cares for an elderly family in Miami Gardens, asked not to be identified because of concerns about her immigration status.
She said she was kidnapped by gang members near her home in Port-au-Prince in 2022 and held captive for two days while her family raised money to pay a ransom.
She said her captors held a gun to her head, leaving her traumatized. After escaping, she fled to Cap-Haïtien before eventually coming to Miami through the humanitarian parole program created during the Biden administration.
"Americans can't live in Haiti," she said. "Why am I going to go back to Haiti?"
Today, she cares for the mother of Lanette Jones, who has dementia.
Jones said the caregiver has become an essential part of her family's daily life.
"I am still a working person, and I still have to go to work," Jones said. "I feel comfortable that I can leave my house and someone is there looking after my parents, and I don't have to worry about their needs."
Jones said sending Haitian immigrants back under current conditions would be devastating.
"To send them back now, it doesn't make any sense because you're sending them back to the same place where you granted them temporary status, and nothing has changed," she said.
Several Haitian advocacy organizations are planning rallies across the country this week as uncertainty continues over the future of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians and Syrians.
A South Florida rally is scheduled for Thursday at 5:30 p.m., although organizers have not yet announced a final location.