Haitians are losing immigration protection. Many fear what comes next

**Chris Bentley** (0:01)
WBUR Podcasts, Boston.

**Mike DeWine** (0:06)
These are people who have opened restaurants, they've opened other businesses. So to lose them is frankly a blow to Springfield and it's a blow to the state of Ohio.

**Chris Bentley** (0:17)
Hundreds of thousands of Haitians who've lost their legal status have been given a choice, leave on their own or risk detention by ICE.
It's Tuesday, July 28th, and this is Here & Now Anytime from NPR and WBUR, I'm Chris Bentley. Today on the show, the White House wants to tighten its grip on research funding and make it harder for American scientists to join international collaborations.

**Lisa Song** (0:54)
We would allow political appointees to decide what research is considered the most important.

**Chris Bentley** (1:00)
Also, despite President Trump's efforts to slow or kill the development of clean energy, it's moving forward anyway.
But first, hundreds of thousands of Haitians and thousands of Syrians who fled natural disasters and war in their home countries are losing their legal protections from deportation. Some 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians have been living and working legally in the US since 2010 under temporary protected status. But the Trump administration ended TPS for those immigrants, and now they could be deported at any time. CBS reporter Camilo Montoya-Galvez is in Springfield, Ohio, talking to Haitians there about how they're preparing. Here's his conversation with Indira Lakshmanan.

**Indira Lakshmanan** (1:47)
They have addresses of those who were living under temporary protected status. Are they going to be going door to door in Springfield? What are you expecting?

**Camilo Montoya-Galvez** (1:56)
Well, we were told by ice horses and also documents that we obtained that the operations targeting Haitians specifically could start as soon as this week. The key open question is when that TPS status will officially terminate, because even though the Supreme Court's ruling took effect on Monday, the lower courts that currently have blocked the termination from taking place, still have to act before the TPS status of people actually expire. So ICE, we are told, is still waiting on that official termination to take place.

**Indira Lakshmanan** (2:30)
You spoke to Ohio Governor Mike DeWine about the effect of these potential deportation orders affecting his community. Let's listen to what he told you.

**Mike DeWine** (2:40)
These are people who have opened restaurants, they've opened other businesses, they've rehabbed houses, they've created jobs as well as filled jobs. So to lose them and have them not be able to work anymore and possibly taken out of this country is frankly a blow to Springfield and it's a blow to the state of Ohio.

**Indira Lakshmanan** (3:02)
I think listeners might be surprised to hear such pushback to President Trump's signature anti-migrant policy from a Republican governor. He's saying this is going to have a negative economic impact on Ohio.
Camilo, tell us how widely is that view shared among business and political leaders across the state?

**Camilo Montoya-Galvez** (3:22)
That view is common here on a bipartisan basis, Indira. We have heard from community leaders and elected officials who say that deporting the Haitian immigrants here, most of whom are working age, would be detrimental to the state's economy and to the economy of communities like Springfield that have relied really on Haitian immigrants and other foreigners to rebuild their economies after decades of stagnant growth. He also told us, the governor did, Indira, that sending Haitians back to their home country would mean sending them back to hell. That is his exact way of phrasing that proposition. And he noted that large parts of Haiti are still controlled by gangs, that the country is still deep in political crisis. The US. State Department in Indira actually tells Americans not to visit Haiti due to the widespread gang violence there.

**Indira Lakshmanan** (4:14)
Well, I was actually just going to ask about that because the Department of Homeland Security says that conditions have improved in Haiti and Syria and people should just go home. Yet the State Department has a level four do not travel advisory for both countries. There are no commercial flights from the US to the capital of either country.
So what are Haitians and Syrians going to face when they return?

**Camilo Montoya-Galvez** (4:38)
It's a critical question. We spoke to one community leader here who fears that some of the Haitians who are deported if the mass deportations do in fact to materialize could face kidnapping or other forms of victimization, even death because of the control that gangs have over many large swaths of the country. He is concerned about their safety. But he says that even though the Department of Homeland Security is offering Haitian immigrants a $2,600 stipend to self-deport and to go home voluntarily, many will instead, he says, opt to go to places like Canada or other countries because of the dangerous conditions in Haiti.