As Trump ends TPS, Haitians say returning home would be a 'death sentence'
Source: USA Today/Columbus Dispatch
July 7, 2025, 6:00 a.m. ET
Thousands of Haitian immigrants living in Ohio on Temporary Protected Status are making plans to leave the country after the Trump administration announced the end of the deportation protection. But they aren't going back to their home country.
The Trump administration says conditions in Haiti have improved enough that it is safe for those living in America with the special temporary status to return to the Caribbean nation. But going back to Haiti is a "death sentence," say community leaders and advocates.
Instead, Haitians living in central Ohio are scrambling to find a safe third country like Canada or Mexico to go to, said Jean Manuel, a Haitian American businessman and advocate who helps some of the approximately 30,000 Haitians living in Columbus.
But that can be difficult, too. To legally immigrate to Canada, they must have family members living there to receive them, said Vilés Dorsainvil, executive director of the Haitian Community Help and Support Center, in Springfield, home to 15,000 to 20,000 Haitian immigrants. Haitians with TPS, which protects immigrants from certain countries from deportation and allows them to work legally in the United States, will lose that protection as of Sept. 2, according to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.
Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/07/07/haitians-ohio-fear-trump-ends-tps/84464981007/