Lawmakers are looking for a way to avoid a crisis in their communities with temporary work permits and deportation protections set to expire for an estimated 330,000 Haitians on Feb. 3.
Democratic lawmakers and some Republicans have called on the Trump administration to extend temporary protected status for Haitians before its expiration date.
“It’s not only the right thing to do, it’s also what Ohioans want, especially those really close to the Haitian community,” Rep. Greg Landsman said of extending TPS.
Landsman’s district is south of Springfield, Ohio, where nearly 15,000 Haitian immigrants have settled. President Donald Trump singled out Springfield’s Haitian population on the campaign trail, baselessly claiming that Haitians were eating house pets. Local advocates fear a deportation effort when TPS protections expire. The local economy is already seeing the effects of Haitian immigrants leaving or dropping out of the workforce.
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Some Democrats have signed onto a long-shot discharge petition that would force a vote to extend temporary protected status for Haitians. Landsman said he had not yet reviewed the petition.
Republican House members from the state, including Rep. Mike Turner, who represents Springfield, did not respond to questions on whether they would support extending TPS or the discharge petition.Rep. Jim Jordan told NOTUS he would not support the discharge petition.
The Department of Homeland Security announced in November that it would not extend TPS for Haitians, saying Secretary Kristi Noem “determined that Haiti no longer meets the conditions for the designation for Temporary Protected Status.”
A federal judge is weighing whether to block the termination of TPS for Haitians, which challengers allege was motivated by politics and not facts.
Haiti has been under a state of emergency since March 2024, with large portions of territory controlled by armed gangs and violence and kidnappings occurring regularly, according to the United Nations. Presidential elections have not been held in a decade.
“Sending Haitians back to Haiti is like sentencing them to death,” Viles Dorsainvil, cofounder and executive director of the Haitian Support Center in Springfield told NOTUS. “We think, anytime, the ICE raids could start.”
Dorsainvil said local lawmakers have been receptive in hearing the concerns Haitians have about returning to their country, but he does not believe it is enough with an administration focusing on mass deportations.
“I think the lawmakers — even though they want to do something — it’s not promised to bear fruit,” Dorsainvil said. “At the end of the day, this administration continues to do what it wants to do.”
Lawmakers who back protections for Haitians similarly expressed concern about the potential violence they may face if forced to return to the country, as well as being targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids if protections expire.
“The compounding political, economic and gang violence crises Haiti faces today are not matters of debate,” Rep. Yvette D. Clarke, cochair of the House Haiti Caucus, told reporters last week. “This is the lived reality for the Haitian people, and one that will only grow more grave if TPS for Haiti is allowed to expire.”
Democrats also made the case that local communities would be hurt by losing Haitian immigrants.
“I think it’s very important for people to recognize how much immigrants, how much TPS holders, specifically, and how much Haitian TPS holders contribute to our economy,” Rep. Maxwell Frost, whose district covers much of Orlando, Florida, told reporters Thursday.
Frost said that Haitian TPS holders are a major group of senior caretakers in facilities across Florida, and that without them, the missing care they provide could not be easily replaced.
“It is Haitian TPS holders in many of these facilities across the state of Florida and across the entire country, showing up to work every day, not knowing if their job will exist in a few months, Frost said.
He called on Republicans who have said they want protections for Haitians to join the discharge petition. At least one of those Republicans, Mario Díaz-Balart, told reporters he does not sign discharge petitions of any kind being in the majority, but said he continues to support extending TPS for Haitians.
“If it’s not a failed state, it’s about as close as you can be without being one,” Diaz-Balart said of Haiti. “That’s why my position has never changed.”
The other two mentioned by Frost, Reps. Maria Salazar and Carlos Gimenez, did not respond to requests for comment.
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