They lost their work permits and their legal status. Returning to Haiti is still 'unimaginable'

Approximately 350,000 Haitians and Syrians who have remade their lives in the United States are now at a crossroads. Their work permits and legal status have expired, yet their home countries haven't recovered from the crises that drove them to seek Temporary Protected Status protections. "It's not that we don't want to go back to Haiti," Harriett Cecilia Joseph, one of the hundreds of thousands of people grappling with what to do next, told PBS News. "It's just the situation doesn't allow us to." In August 2021, Joseph applied for TPS, a U.S. immigration program that gives temporary legal status to citizens of countries facing war or environmental disasters. Settling in Springfield, Ohio, she built a community, got a job and started her own business as an event planner. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that President Donald Trump's administration could end TPS for Haiti, Joseph's home country, and Syria. "It's so hard to verbalize the impact unless you put yourself in that position," said Murad Awawdeh, president of the New York Immigration Coalition. "The depth of the fear that people are living in right now is unconscionable." As of March, gangs controlled 90% of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, according to the United Nations. Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, described the city as a "kill zone" in remarks before the UN Security Council in July. Haiti holds a Level 4 advisory from the U.S. State Department, warning Americans not to travel to the country due to risk of crime, terrorism, kidnapping and unrest. "The idea of returning is just unimaginable for many," said Leonie Hermantin, director of special projects at Sant La Haitian Neighborhood Center in Miami. "You can no longer earn any resources to pay for your life, you can no longer work in the formal economy, your health insurance gets canceled, you are now a person who is going to be targeted by the federal government for removal," Awawdeh said. Joseph was let go from her job just a few weeks after the Supreme Court ruling, after losing her work permit. "I didn't think it was gonna be that quick," she said. Nearly 190,000 Haitian TPS holders are in the workforce and contribute about $5.9 billion to the U.S. economy every year, according to FWD.us. Around 270,000 U.S. citizens live with Haitian TPS beneficiaries, according to FWD.us.