Springfield watches Haitian TPS expire as ICE starts taking people off the street

Temporary Protected Status for Haitians ended last month. The Supreme Court cleared the way on 25 June in a 6-3 order. A federal judge in Washington lifted the last stop on 5 August. The first removal flight after that fight landed in Cap-Haïtien in late August with more than 160 people on board.

About 350,000 Haitians in the United States held TPS. Roughly 6,000 Syrians were on the same docket. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told CNN after the ruling that holders should apply for a permanent status or take a plane ticket and about $2,100 to “re-establish” at home.

PBS NewsHour went back to Springfield, Ohio, on 1 September. The city has about 60,000 residents and an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 Haitians, a share large enough that schools, packing plants and rental streets changed when the community arrived. It also became a national argument in 2024 after Donald Trump repeated a false claim that Haitian residents ate pets.

What the court actually did

The June order was not a full merits ruling. It let the administration terminate the Haiti and Syria designations while lawsuits continue. Justice Elena Kagan, writing for the three liberals, said the majority had allowed people to “be put on the next plane.” The Justice Department had already won a similar fight over Venezuela’s TPS list.

Stephen Miller called the Haiti decision “a victory 10 years in the making.” Geoffrey Pipoly, a lawyer for Haitian plaintiffs, told the justices in April that the true reason for termination was animus. The court did not adopt that framing. It treated TPS as temporary by statute and let the secretary end it.

Springfield in August

On the Thursday the first flight landed in Haiti, ICE arrested pastor Gilbert Joubert Adrien at a Springfield gas station, according to Springfield G92, a local faith group. A second Haitian man with him was taken as well. Marjory Wentworth, the group’s spokesperson, said ICE had been a heavy presence in the city in the days around that arrest.

Viles Dorsainvil, who runs a Haitian support centre in Springfield, said after the June ruling that families, school runs and shift work had been put in limbo in a single morning. Mayor Rob Rue’s office put out a statement recognising “significant uncertainty” and pointing residents to legal aid. The city cannot grant status. It can only watch federal officers work a list.

What Haiti is receiving

Deportees are landing in a country still run, in large part, by armed groups. Lawyers for the TPS holders told the courts that return is unsafe. Miller said Haiti is “absolutely” safe for Haitians because it is their country. Those two sentences will not be reconciled in a press conference. They will be tested in Cap-Haïtien and Port-au-Prince as more flights land.

For Springfield the immediate question is smaller and sharper. How many of the 10,000 to 15,000 Haitians in town hold only TPS and no other file? Those are the people who became removable in August. The rest of the city will feel the answer in classrooms and on factory lines before it feels it in a national poll.