After the Supreme Court authorized the Trump administration to end temporary protections for Haitians, thousands of migrants living in the Chicago area are confronting growing uncertainty about their futures.
The change, announced by former Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and then approved by the Supreme Court on June 25, will terminate the Temporary Protected Status program for Haitians, according to a July 10 news release from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Protections for Haitians are now set to expire on July 24.
TPS was established by Congress through the Immigration Act of 1990 and designed to grant temporary protection status to nationals of countries with ongoing armed conflicts, environmental disasters and other extraordinary conditions that make returning to their country unsafe.
Under TPS, nationals receive a registration document and are legally authorized to work in the U.S. for the duration of their TPS designation, which can last up to 18 months and must be renewed by the Secretary of Homeland Security 60 days prior to its expiration.
According to the Department of Homeland Security’s estimation, 352,959 Haitians currently hold Temporary Protected Status.
Patrick Brutus, co-founder and vice president of the Haitian American Professional Network and co-chair of the Next Gen Committee of The Coalition of Haitian American Organizations of the Chicagoland Area, said the region’s Haitian community is “prepared for the worst.”
Brutus said some Haitian TPS holders have already lost their jobs — even before the July 24 deadline — after their employers learned the program was set to expire.
Following the program’s expiration, beneficiaries will lose the legal status that allows them to remain and work in the U.S. unless they qualify for another form of immigration relief, according to coalition member Darryl Auguste, Secretary of the Haitian American Lawyers Association of Illinois.
Auguste emphasized that TPS holders will not be deported immediately once the program expires, but they will also have no legal status allowing them to remain in the U.S.
“There’s so many different types of visas that exist that allow them to have status that can lead them to other permanent standpoints,” Auguste said. “So if I had to encompass everything into one statement: Go talk to an immigration attorney and see your options.”
Auguste said some Haitian TPS holders who may face serious danger or personal targeting if they return to Haiti have grounds to seek asylum in the U.S.
Still, Brutus said he fears the expiration of TPS might trigger a wave of deportations similar to Operation Midway Blitz, a federal immigration crackdown across the Chicago area announced in September 2025.
“What we don’t want to see is another round of Operation Midway Blitz by the administration coming into cities where there may be large populations of concentrated TPS individuals and families and then start to physically remove them from their places of residence,” he said.
Brutus said some Haitian immigrants have begun “going back into the shadows,” avoiding public places in fear of federal immigration enforcement agents.
He said both the coalition and the Haitian American Professional Network are crafting anticipatory strategies for migrants.
Some strategies include developing a legal network to help TPS holders apply for asylum and raise funds to assist Haitian families, especially those who have recently lost their jobs.
Brutus added that the organizations are also rallying with other Haitian groups to push for the extension of TPS.
U.S. Senate Bill 4814, which would extend TPS’ expiration date through 2029, was introduced on June 17.
Etzer Cantave, the coalition’s chairman of Public Policy and Advocacy, said coalition members have been meeting with members of Illinois’ congressional delegation and urging senators to support the bill.
In addition to these organizing efforts, Brutus said groups are also helping parents prepare to speak with attorneys to complete legal guardianship documents for their U.S.-born children.
In 2010, an earthquake in Haiti brought millions of people to the U.S. under TPS. Since that date, Brutus said, many children have been born in the country and are considered U.S.-born citizens. However, their parents are not, which could lead to family separation, he explained.
Brutus said many children of Haitian TPS holders attend school and many are preparing for college. If parents ultimately face deportation, families could be forced to choose between taking their U.S.-born children to Haiti or leaving them behind.
He noted that many of these children have never lived in Haiti and are unfamiliar with the country, adding that the federal government’s move to deport American children to a place it warns American citizens not to visit seems “ironic.”
“To go back to a country with American children to live in a country that the United States themselves have placed a travel advisory for Americans to travel to, it’s not aligned with safety,” Brutus said.
Brutus’ own parents migrated from Haiti to the U.S. in 1964, and they raised three children who all went to college, he said.
Based on his own experience, Brutus said Haitians are productive members of society.
“We’re not part of the problem,” Brutus said. “To be deemed and made to believe that we are part of a problem — that America no longer can become the melting pot — that’s just consistent with how the American policy toward our people has been.”
Beyond concerns about belonging, Haitian organizations have also pointed out the economic impact Haitians have in the U.S.
Cantave said the push for an extension of TPS is urgent because TPS holders work in sectors ranging from health care and manufacturing to research, adding that employers would feel a “significant” impact if large numbers of workers lose authorization to remain employed.
“These people are subjected to deportation, and to deport them to where?” Cantave said. “Because we know, given the situation in Haiti, it would never be able to accommodate 1,000 migrants, let alone 315,000 or so.”
Echoing Cantave, chair of Haitian Congress to Fortify Haiti Marie Lynn Toussaint, who emigrated to the United States with her family in the 1970s, said many Haitians who seek assistance from the organization pay their taxes and have spent years building lives in the Chicago area.
She said TPS now has an expiration date because there is a desire to “get rid of people of color.”
“People are in a state of panic. They’re very afraid. They’re lost,” she said. “They don’t know what to do because they haven’t done anything wrong. It’s not as if they’re running from something. They’ve just been targeted.”
Email: [email protected]
Related Stories:
— Mark Krikorian advocates for immigration restriction at NU YAF event, meets NU Democrats criticism
— Final event of Black History Month lecture series highlights Haitian culture, cuisine
— Haitians in Evanston dismayed by Trump’s ‘shithole countries’ comment
