As Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, ends for Haitians and Syrians on Monday, a Trump Administration official told NBC News that ICE is planning to ramp up arrests and deportations of Haitians as that status runs out, sending fear and panic through the Haitian community in San Diego.
“It’s scary, you know? A lot of them don’t even want to leave their home,” said Ritchy Gilot, a Haitian-American who’s lived in San Diego for 16 years and has friends with TPS. “They’re scared because back home is not safe either.”
Gilot said he was 11 years old when the 2010 earthquake devastated his home country of Haiti and he watched as the American military arrived to help Haitians face the disaster.
“Being able to get that help from a huge nation,” he said, “It’s something that made me, when I first came here, made me actually want to serve the country.”
Now an American citizen, Gilot said he followed his father in immigrating to San Diego, and then joined the U.S. Marine Corps – lately feeling conflicted as he anticipates the federal crackdown on his Haitian community.
“It’s rough,” he said. “It’s sad, especially having served, you know, I always had the belief in me that the United States military, you know, is there to help the smaller nations … that can’t help themselves.”
An administration official told NBC News the timing and location of the operations are still being determined. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that the agency does not discuss ongoing or future operations.
“Temporary Protected Status is exactly that-temporary,” the DHS spokesperson said. “For too long, TPS has been allowed to function as a de facto amnesty program despite Congress never intending it to be permanent. What we would say now is it’s closing time which means you don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.”
The end of TPS for Haitians and Syrians comes about a month after the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump Administration has the authority to legally terminate that status. TPS is a form of humanitarian protection for nations facing crises like political violence or natural disasters, allowing people from those countries to live and work in the U.S. for cycles that can be renewed.
“One of them told me this morning, ‘I woke up illegal,’” said Guerline Jozef, who runs the nonprofit organization Haitian Bridge Alliance.
Jozef said she’s already seen increased enforcement in Haitian communities.
“We are facing trauma,” she said. “They have nowhere to go. They have nowhere to flee. And they cannot go back home right now because of the country conditions.”
She shared the story of a San Diego family impacted by the ruling, a woman who told Jozef that her 9-year-old daughter, an American citizen who has an autoimmune condition, is scared to leave her side.
“Right now, [she] is afraid to go get her treatment, is afraid to go to school because she fears coming back home and not finding her mother, because her father has already been taken,” Jozef said.
During an unrelated July 1 news conference after the Supreme Court ruling, DHS Sec. Markwayne Mullin reiterated that TPS was “never meant to be permanent.”
“You had an opportunity while you were here to possibly try to change your status,” Mullin said. “Now that the court rulings went out, you no longer have that option.”
He encouraged anyone with TPS whose status is expiring to go to the DHS website to sign up for self-deportation.
“We’ll help you get to the country that you came from, or get you to a country willing to accept you,” Mullin said. “Fill out the paperwork and maybe you can come back and participate in the American dream.”
“But if we have to arrest you and deport you, that option of coming back in this country is off the table,” he added.
Immigration attorneys say many Haitians with TPS have also applied for asylum. And Jozef said she does have some political hope for Haitians, with a bill currently in the Senate that proposes an extension of TPS for Haitians through 2029. A similar measure passed the House in April.
“Wherever you are, Republicans, Democrats, independent, blue, green, whatever party you’re a part of, we need to move past that and center the fight to save immigrants,” Jozef said.
“I feel like there’s a better way to actually go about it, instead of scaring the whole community, because a lot of Haitians come here and they provide a lot to the economy,” Gilot said. “The Haitian community here, they’re working very hard, you know? They’re following the rules.”
“We all come here to chase a better life,” he added.