(New York) More than 500,000 live with a sword of Damocles above the head. In the United States, Haitians with temporary protection status live paralyzed at the mere idea of going out in the street and being arrested to be expelled.
Clarens (whose first name is changed) had fled Port-au-Prince in 2024. Destination: the United States, where he obtained the TPS, the status granted by Washington to Haitians in the wake of the 2010 earthquake but recently revoked by the Trump administration.
“I came here to get a refuge and here I want to chase me. I believed in the American dream, and I thought I could welcome the rest of my family here. I thought we were going to be able to flourish in the United States, “he said to AFP.
In Miami or New York, American cities with the most important Haitian diasporas, fear is omnipresent, tell AFP a dozen actors or members of the community.
“It is total panic, it is the whole community that suffers because even if your temporary status is not yet revoked, the agents of the ICE are in the streets and can stop anyone,” says Clarens.
After canceling its extension until February 2026, the administration of Donald Trump revoked definitively at the end of June this status granted to 520,000 Haitians. The cleaver will fall on September 2.
A New York court blocked the measure but the respite may be brief, explains Stephanie D. Delia, a American-Haitian lawyer specializing in migratory questions.
PHOTO CHARLY TRIBALLEAU, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Stephanie D. Delia, lawyer specializing in migration questions
I do not see a scenario in which this status will be extended […] Imagine what it means for a person who has lived with this status for 15 years, who has built his life here, and who is said to be less than six months old to make her bags and leave.
Stephanie D. Delia, lawyer specializing in migration questions
“Total distress”
In the “Little Haiti” district of Brooklyn, in New York, many fear going to the market, the church, the work, even the clinic, for fear of being arrested by the masked agents of the ICE.
PHOTO CHARLY TRIBALLEAU, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
In the “Little Haiti” district of Brooklyn, in New York, many fear going to the market, the church, the work, even the clinic, for fear of being arrested by the masked agents of the ICE.
“People watch TV, see migrants arrested even if their papers are still in good standing. At the clinic, the number of people with a temporary status that comes to consult has increased from around 300 to 30 per day, “said the director of a public health clinic requiring anonymity. “There is a social crisis that ends. The fire is “medium”, but it will soon be “lively”.
Director of the association “Haitian Bridge Alliance”, Guerline Jozef received a number of testimonies in this sense, in particular that of a woman “in total distress”. “She has two children under ten born in the United States. What will happen to him? Will she be expelled and separated from her children? ».
“Without status, people will no longer have the capacity to work, to pay their rent, and will therefore meet on the street,” adds Haitian activist Pascale Solages.
Conditions are created so that people decide to return home for themselves because they will no longer be able to support their needs in the United States.
Pascale Solsages, Haitian activist
The Trump government offers $ 1,000 to migrants to return to their country of origin.
North
In recent weeks, Haitians in temporary status have chosen another option: Canada.
“We receive many requests for information, phone calls. And we receive 10-15 people per day, with or without their family, ”says Marjorie Villefranche, director of the House of Haiti, a reception association in Montreal, where a major Haitian community lives.
Photo Catherine Lefebvre, Archives La Presse
Marjorie Villefranche, Director of the House of Haiti
Under an agreement on third parties safe, Haitians in the United States can request asylum in Canada if they have family. The others can go there by the land border and request asylum in the first 14 days after entering the territory.
Contacted by AFP, the Canadian Border Services Agency said it noted an influx of asylum seekers at the Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, on the edge of Quebec and New York.
From 1is January to July 6, 8,396 asylum applications were received at this crossing point, against 4613 for the same period last year. First country of origin of applicants? Haiti.
In the viewfinder of the gangs
Clarens does not see how he could migrate in Canada and wait for years without his family, in the hope of obtaining refugee status. And the prospect of entering the poorest country of the Americas, plagued by the violence of the criminal bands, makes him shudder.
More than 3000 people were killed in Haiti during the first six months of the year, according to the UN.
The State Department asks American citizens to “not travel” in Haiti due to the risk of kidnapping by gangs.
“The gangs control everything, they have informants who watch those who enter and leave the country. In their heads, if you live in the United States, it is that you have money, ”fears Clarens. “We will therefore become kidnapping targets for gangs […] To send us back there is like sending us to death, to the butcher’s shop. ”