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As (mostly manufactured) questions about Springfield, Ohio, and its Haitian population continue to dominate both national news and the presidential campaign, people on both sides continue to push the newly arrived Haitians away from traditional immigration policy. I am struggling to fit it into a framework. : “legal immigrants” and “illegal immigrants.”
So-called “hawks” in the immigration industry, who generally tend to have a more restrictive attitude, casually declared the Haitians in Springfield (and other areas) to be illegal immigrants. “Doves,” or people with more tolerant attitudes toward immigrants, counter that they are actually more likely to have legal protection in the United States. In response, some hawks responded that, unfortunately, they would continue to call it illegal.
But neither is exactly the case in terms of the actual policies that led to the arrival of Haitians. And it’s important to understand that.
Hawks use the default as a way to express dissatisfaction with how someone came to the United States or feelings that the government should not allow them to settle in the United States, even if they follow the process set forth in federal law. There is a tendency to say “illegal”. . (This is, for example, how the Biden administration’s parole program, which extends temporary legal protection to certain people, has been labeled a magnet for “illegal” immigration.) tend to default to the idea of being an immigrant. – Certainly legal people come to the United States to settle and make a better life for their families – even if the actual legal status they hold is that they will live here forever. Even if it is said that it is not allowed.
For Haitians, both are true. The lives of recent arrivals from Haiti are shaped by the interplay of several laws and policies that combine to make them not currently “illegal,” but completely and irrevocably “legal.” I’m in a situation where I can’t do anything. . The dichotomy between “illegal immigrant” and “legal immigrant” is not only arbitrary, but also often difficult to understand under what laws people live under and what their future in the United States will be. It’s not fundamentally important.
But just as importantly, this back-and-forth obscures hard, essential truths. That means many people currently living with legal protections are at the mercy of one president after another, with no way to make that protection permanent.
New arrivals from Haiti are a particularly striking example of this phenomenon. That’s because they are benefiting from several different programs from the Biden administration. The program, which has allowed many Haitians to enter the United States under one legal process, transitions them to another form of protection that allows them to stay. Indefinitely in the US.
The Biden administration has garnered attention from the left for its crackdown on asylum procedures and from the right for allowing anyone to enter the United States, but it is also creating alternative procedures at ports for people to arrive in the United States. They are also very proactive in this regard. Instead of crossing the border without permission and turning yourself in to the Border Patrol for asylum, you should be allowed to enter the country. These were especially important to Haitians.
The Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan Parole Program (CHNV) allows for two years of legal stay in the United States, with eligibility for a work permit. The implication of this program is that people work in the United States for two years and then (unless they find more permanent legal status) return home. The government has not said that CHNV permits are renewable, but it has also not said explicitly that they are not. Although the government approves up to 30,000 CHNV applications (applications from U.S.-based sponsors) each month, the number of people actually arriving at U.S. airports under the program is typically slightly less than this. As of May 2024, 172,900 Haitian nationals had come to the United States under the CHNV program. (All statistics in this post are from the Bureau of Homeland Security Statistics.)
Meanwhile, at the U.S.-Mexico border, the Biden administration announced restrictions on asylum eligibility for people traveling between ports of entry and using the CBP One app to register for an appointment at a port of entry and present themselves for asylum. A combination of systems. . (After an initial review at the time of appointment, CBP can choose to continue detaining asylum seekers or release them while their asylum cases are pending.) Now under the Biden administration’s executive order declaring a border “state of emergency” Based on this, the CBP One appointments are as follows: It is the only way to guarantee that someone will even be allowed to seek asylum in lieu of lesser protection.
Haitian Kreyol is one of three languages in which the CBP One app is available (the other two are English and Spanish). Although the number of people requesting CBP One appointments still exceeds the number of slots available, many people are arriving at ports of entry and successfully entering the United States. Since the release of the CBP One app in January 2023, nearly 120,000 Haitians have been allowed to enter the United States after turning themselves in at a port of entry.
These are not the only Haitian asylum seekers with pending cases who have been allowed to remain in the United States since the start of fiscal year 2021 (which began in October 2020). Including 40,500 Haitians released into the United States from border ports of entry before the release of the CBP One app and 32,000 Haitians who crossed the border and were released from Border Patrol custody, 190,000 Haitians were allowed to stay. The United States is waiting for asylum applications from October 2020 to May 2024.
May 2024 is the latest month for which these statistics are available, but it’s important for another reason as well. This summer, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas announced he was redesignating Haiti to Temporary Protected Status. This is a program that allows people in the United States from certain countries to receive protection from the state, even if they have a temporary visa or lack legal status altogether. be. Deportation and work permits for several years at a time. TPS is granted to countries where the United States determines it is unsafe to deport people due to conflict or natural disasters. It can be extended indefinitely, and in most cases, including Haiti, which has been under TPS since 2010, that is exactly what has happened.
However, the Biden administration will not only extend TPS for Haitians who already had these protections, but also redesignate it so that Haitians who arrived before June 3, 2024 can also apply for TPS. was allowed. These include Haitians paroled through the CHNV program (who would otherwise have started losing protection in January 2025) and those without legal status whose asylum claims are not approved years away. This includes the Haitians whose greatest hope was
This is an important aspect of the Biden administration’s immigration policy that has not been fully considered. Through a combination of new legal tools (such as CHNV) and a generally dovish attitude toward the TPS designation, the Biden administration not only expanded temporary deportation protection to hundreds of thousands of people, but also extended temporary deportation protection to some allowed entry into the United States for a certain amount of money and then allowed protection to be changed to indefinite protection. This may give some Haitians (and others) who originally intended to leave the United States after a few years the opportunity to change their minds and choose to settle in communities like Springfield for the time being. It means something.
We don’t know how many people were actually eligible to apply for TPS. But in theory, the 365,000 Haitians who came to the United States in the past three and a half years under new temporary programs or seeking asylum could have their status converted to something lower. should have been allowed. Unstable.
But only a little.
The current TPS designation for Haiti expires on February 3, 2026. By that date, the Department of Homeland Security (whoever its leader or immediate president was at the time) must reach a conclusion as to whether Haitians continue to need these protections. or not. If they conclude otherwise, Haitians who received TPS, whether new arrivals this summer or those who have been protected by TPS since 2010, will lose their status.
Haitians who arrived under the CHNV program between February and May 2024 will continue to have legal protection under the program for days or months until the two-year period expires. Haitians who are denied asylum while in TPS protection would suddenly become easy targets for deportation, as they could be deported without another court hearing. Haitians whose asylum claims have been removed from processing (administratively terminated) because they obtained TPS can apply for new work permits, but are unlikely to obtain legal status. Haitians who are completely rejected from the immigration process are not even allowed to work legally. Others simply become illegal immigrants, subject to ICE arrest, detention, and ultimately deportation.
This is not an unthinkable prospect. The Trump administration sought to revoke TPS designations for hundreds of thousands of immigrants during its term, ironically starting with Haiti in the summer of 2017. The effort was unsuccessful because a federal court found the administration did not follow proper procedures. Considering whether to review the TPS is essentially a top political appointee deciding that TPS needs to be ended, instead of considering evidence about the state of the country compiled by civil servants. That means I did it. (In fact, in one case there was evidence that the acting Secretary of Homeland Security changed his recommendations after being contacted by the White House.)
There is nothing to prevent future administrations from making further efforts. In fact, Project 2025 calls for an end to all TPS designations, with no awareness of the country’s situation, and strongly suggests that another hawkish president would make ending TPS a top priority. .
What’s frustrating is that more than seven years after the Trump administration tried to abolish TPS for Haiti, Haitians still rely on presidential administration decisions every 24 months to maintain their ability to live in the United States. It’s about being there. TPS holders have lived in a state of “marginal legality” for decades, having settled in the United States but knowing that in theory they could still be forced to leave the country. . Because TPS does not create a path to permanent legal status, and because Congress has not acted on any of the bills that have been introduced every two years to create legal status, they is sticking with TPS as the best option.
After all, the fact that they have no idea what their future will be in the United States and have no ability to control their own destiny matters much more than whether they are currently “legal” or “illegal.” It’s important.
Affiliation: Ohio State
