Florida’s Haitian community braces for job losses and deportations as TPS ends

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Roughly 350,000 Haitian immigrants are set to lose federal work authorization and deportation protections at 11:59 p.m. Monday, including an estimated 150,000-158,000 living in Florida.

The deadline does not mean every Haitian TPS holder immediately becomes subject to removal. People with another legal status or separate work authorization may remain protected. But those relying solely on Temporary Protected Status will lose their ability to work legally and become vulnerable to deportation.

Watch report from Forrest Saunders

Haitian TPS protections expire at midnight

That has stirred fear across South Florida, home to the nation’s largest Haitian community—and reports of a planned immigration-enforcement surge are adding to the anxiety.

CBS News and Fox News reported that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is preparing to increase arrests of Haitian immigrants as early as this week. The reports, based on unnamed federal sources and internal planning documents, say operations may initially concentrate on Ohio. ICE has not publicly released details of the reported operation.

Protections dating to Haiti’s 2010 earthquake

Congress created TPS for foreign nationals already in the United States whose countries are experiencing armed conflict, natural disasters or other conditions that make a safe return difficult.

Haiti was first designated after its catastrophic 2010 earthquake. The protection was later renewed and expanded as Haiti confronted political instability, gang violence, human-rights abuses, food insecurity and additional natural disasters.

TPS does not provide an automatic path to permanent residency. It does, however, allow eligible recipients to remain and work legally while the designation is active.

For South Florida resident Farah Larrieux, its expiration raises the possibility of returning to the conditions she fled.

“I felt Haiti was too small for my dreams,” Larrieux said. “I was tired with the situation—political instability, crime, injustice, poverty.”

Supreme Court clears the way

Lower courts had temporarily blocked the Trump administration from ending the program. But on June 25, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed those decisions in a 6-3 ruling involving TPS designations for Haiti and Syria.

The majority concluded that federal law largely prevents courts from reviewing a Homeland Security secretary’s decision to terminate a country’s TPS designation. The justices also found that Haitian plaintiffs were unlikely to prove their claim that racial discrimination motivated the decision. Three liberal justices dissented.

The deadline shifted several times as the ruling moved through the lower courts, with the latest federal guidance extending the protections through July 27.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin says the program was never intended to become permanent.

“TPS was temporary. It was never meant to be permanent status,” Mullin said earlier this month. “You had an opportunity while you were here to possibly try to change your status.”

Mullin has encouraged affected immigrants to leave voluntarily, saying the government will provide a plane ticket and $2,600 to those who register for self-deportation.

A conflict over conditions in Haiti

The administration says some areas of Haiti are suitable for returning nationals and argues that continuing the designation is not in the country’s national interest.

The State Department, however, still places Haiti under its highest travel warning.

Its Level Four advisory tells Americans not to travel there because of crime, kidnapping, terrorism, unrest and limited health care. The advisory says violent crime is rampant, kidnapping is widespread and U.S. commercial flights are not operating to or from Port-au-Prince. Haiti has also remained under a national state of emergency since March 2024.

Travel advisories are written for U.S. citizens and do not legally determine whether a country qualifies for TPS. Mullin has argued that Americans face particular kidnapping risks because criminals may believe their families can pay large ransoms. He also says federal deportation flights can enter areas closed to commercial traffic.

Critics say that distinction provides little comfort to Haitians facing return.

“Our own government has said that Haiti is too dangerous for Americans to visit,” state Sen. Shevrin Jones, D-Miami Gardens, said. “But yet, at the same time, it’s ending this protection that could force Haitians to return there. These two positions simply just don’t square.”

Jones has called the administration’s decision racially motivated and says fear of immigration arrests is already keeping some residents off the streets of Little Haiti.

He is also urging U.S. Sens. Ashley Moody and Rick Scott to support legislation extending the protections.

The U.S. House passed a bipartisan bill in April that would extend Haitian TPS for three years. The measure passed 224-204, with 10 Republicans joining Democrats and one independent, but it has not cleared the Senate.

No single legal fallback

For those hoping to remain, immigration attorney Steve Maggi, with SMA Law St. Petersburg, said the end of TPS creates a case-by-case legal scramble.

“The problem here is that the blanket solution has no blanket remedy,” Maggi said. “That means that each individual person has to go either to a nonprofit or talk to an immigration expert.”

Possible alternatives include family-based petitions, asylum and other humanitarian protections. Asylum applications are generally required within a year of arriving in the United States, though federal law provides limited exceptions.

The expiration could also affect Florida employers, particularly in health care, hospitality, agriculture and construction. Haitian TPS holders fill thousands of caregiving and direct-care positions, and workforce experts warn their loss could deepen existing staffing shortages.

For recipients without another legal option, however, the immediate consequences are more personal: their work permits expire as the possibility of deportation begins.