‘Tired Of Running Away’: Haitians in Ohio Get Reprieve, But Fear What Comes Next

The fate of hundreds of thousands of Haitian immigrants in the United States hangs in the balance, despite a federal judge’s injunction that stopped their immigration status from expiring. A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked the Trump Administration’s decision to terminate Haiti’s designation for Temporary Protected Status (T.P.S.), an immigration program that allows migrants from countries facing wars or natural disasters to stay in the U.S. temporarily. The termination, which was due to take effect on Tuesday, would have meant that over 300,000 Haitians would have lost their legal status overnight. The Trump Administration has already said it will appeal, leaving many Haitians fearing the worst. “We can’t give ourselves the luxury of living as if it is a normal time, because it’s not an extension…It’s just like a pause,” Viles Dorsainvil, a Haitian immigrant and community leader who lives in Springfield, Ohio, told TIME. Read more: On Thin ICE in Minneapolis: How Trump’s Immigration Crackdown Sparked a Crisis of Trust Springfield’s roughly 15,000-strong Haitian population had been dreading Tuesday’s decision for weeks, as local leaders prepared for a surge of federal immigration agents to coincide with the loss of their status.  The city had been in the crosshairs once before, during the 2024 presidential campaign, when both President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance falsely claimed Haitians were eating cats and dogs. According to Dorsainvil, who runs a nonprofit that helps newly arrived immigrants integrate into Springfield, many Haitian families have been keeping their children home from school in recent days out of fear of being separated. Some Haitians have left Ohio for other states, or even Canada. Most have stayed, however—years after fleeing their home country, which is still mired in gang violence and natural disaster, people don’t want to move again. “The feedback I get from them [Haitian immigrants] is that they feel like they are tired. They are tired of running away.
They’re tired of becoming a target,” he said.  It’s unclear how long the reprieve for Dorsainvil’s community will last.  On Monday evening, Judge Ana C. Reyes of the Federal District Court in Washington denied the administration’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) termination of T.P.S. In her 83-page decision, Judge Reyes ripped into DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.  “Secretary Noem complains of strains unlawful immigrants place on our immigration enforcement system. Her answer? Turn 352,959 lawful immigrants into unlawful immigrants overnight. She complains of strains to our economy. Her answer? Turn employed lawful immigrants who contribute billions in taxes into the legally unemployable. She complains of strains to our healthcare system. Her answer? Turn the insured into the uninsured,” she wrote. Judge Reyes argued that the Trump Administration had not determined whether it was safe to return people to Haiti, and noted that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had said publicly that Haiti was facing “immediate security challenges.” Immediately after the ruling, the federal government announced that it would appeal the decision. “Temporary means temporary and the final word will not be from an activist judge legislating from the bench,” DHS Spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said on Monday night.  DeWine, who is a Republican, said on Friday that the decision made by the federal government to end the TPS was “a mistake.” “The situation in Haiti is as dire as I have ever seen it. The gangs are controlling a good part of the country, it’s extremely violent, the economy is in shambles, the government does not function, the police are virtually worthless, so this is a very dangerous place,” DeWine said. “If Temporary Protected Status goes away next week, thousands of Haitians who are working, and contributing members of the community will not be able to work.”  The humanitarian crisis in Haiti continues to deteriorate, as armed gangs control 90 percent of the capital city, Port-au-Prince, while continuing to expand their presence elsewhere, according to the United Nations. The State Department has issued a warning not to travel to Haiti “for any reason” since July 2025. Gang violence and repeated natural disasters have forced 1.4 million people, around 12 percent of the population, to flee their homes. Springfield has a population of around 60,000, roughly a quarter of whom are Haitian migrants. During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump said that he would launch “the largest deportation” in U.S. history, starting with Springfield, Ohio. The city has since received a bomb threat, and a neo-Nazi group has marched across the city.