Viles Dorsainvil, a Haitian community leader in Springfield who is a plaintiff in one of the federal lawsuits, said this could be a matter of life and death because if people who fled Haiti are forced to return they could be kidnapped, tortured and attacked and killed.
“(Most) people don’t really know what we’ve been through and what’s awaiting us if we go back to Haiti,” said Dorsainvil, who is the director of the Haitian Support Center in Springfield.
TPS expiration
In November, the Department of Homeland Security announced that Haiti’s TPS designation will expire on Feb. 3. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has claimed that a federal analysis determined that Haiti no longer meets the statutory requirements for TPS, and allowing Haitian nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is “inconsistent with national interests.”
A DHS spokesperson last year said the environmental situation in Haiti has improved enough to the point where it is safe for its citizens to return home. In a statement, the agency said, “If you are an alien who is currently a beneficiary of TPS for Haiti, you should prepare to depart if you have no other lawful basis.”
The DHS secretary can designate a country for TPS if there are temporary conditions like an ongoing armed conflict (such as civil war); an environmental disaster (earthquake or hurricane); an epidemic or other extraordinary and temporary conditions.
Haiti received TPS following a devastating earthquake in 2010, and TPS was extended multiple times. Haiti was given a new TPS designation by the Biden Administration after the country’s president was assassinated in 2021.
About 15 countries had TPS designations as of late 2025, but DHS has announced the termination of TPS for Haiti and nine other countries. Ohio was home to about 26,500 foreign nationals with TPS as of March 2025, says data published by the Congressional Research Service from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Thousands of Haitians live in Springfield and Clark County, though it is unclear how many rely on TPS status to legally live and work here, as opposed to other protections such as asylum or a green card.
California lawsuit
Last year, a group called the National TPS Alliance and a dozen individual plaintiffs filed a legal complaint in federal court in California against DHS and Secretary Noem that claims the termination of Haiti’s TPS designation exceeds DHS’ authority and was “arbitrary and capricious, contrary to law, pretextual and deviated from past practice” and violated administrative procedures.
The lawsuit alleges DHS is trying to terminate TPS based at least partly on “racial and discriminatory animus” instead of improving conditions in Haiti. Lawyers for the plaintiffs allege Secretary Noem’s termination orders were in line with President Donald Trump’s “false and racist” claims that Haitian TPS holders in Springfield were eating dogs and cats.
Credit: Tom Gilliam
Credit: Tom Gilliam
The lawsuit claims the termination is unconstitutional because it is motivated at least in part by intentional discrimination based on race, ethnicity or national origin. The legal complaint says DHS has not followed specific procedural rules that the agency must take to terminate TPS designations.
In court filings, attorneys for the federal government have argued that the lower courts have no jurisdiction over reviewing the determinations of the DHS secretary when it comes to TPS designations, terminations or extensions. The federal government contends that Congress gave the secretary broad discretion and authority to review and make TPS decisions, and Haiti’s termination decision was based on national interests.
A notice of Haiti’s TPS termination published in the Federal Register in November says some parts of the country are suitable for return and illegal immigration that is coming from Haiti is contrary to U.S. interests.
The federal district court judge in California made a significant ruling in favor of the plaintiffs, saying that no meaningful review, analysis or consultation process took place before Noem moved to end TPS protections.
The lower court’s ruling has been appealed to the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which heard oral arguments in mid-January. The lawsuit also challenges the cancellation of TPS for Venezuelans. Some legal observers believe a decision likely will be issued before Haiti’s TPS expires on Tuesday.
But in a setback for the plaintiffs in this case, the U.S. Supreme Court last fall allowed the Trump administration’s termination of the TPS designation for Venezuela to go into effect even though the lawsuit is still active.
D.C lawsuit
A separate lawsuit is filed against President Trump in Washington, D.C. that alleges his administration wrongly vacated Haiti’s TPS designation. That suit also claims that DHS has not provided evidence that conditions in Haiti have improved enough for citizens to be able to return safely.
Dorsainvil, the Springfield resident who is a plaintiff in the California case, said violence is rampant in Haiti and ruthless gangs remain in charge.
He said many Haitians who live in the Springfield area are staying at home and not going out very much because they are scared of being detained and sent back to an unstable and unsafe country.
He said he believes and fears that ICE will come to Springfield in a big way because of President Trump’s past promises to crack down on Haitians in the city.
Conditions in Haiti seem to be getting progressively worse and the federal government likely will have a hard time making a convincing case that the situation has improved significantly, said Ericka Curran, professor at the University of Dayton School of Law.
The State Department, in a travel advisory, says Americans should not visit Haiti for any reason because the country has problems with kidnapping, crime, terrorist activity, civil unrest and limited health care.
Curran said DHS’ cancellation of TPS for Haiti and other countries is in keeping with the Trump administration’s approach to immigration.
But she said there has been a huge outpouring of support for the Haitians in the Springfield and Dayton areas.
“I hope the litigation goes the way of protecting individuals with TPS,” Curran said. “There may be countries for whom TPS is no longer necessary, but you want to make an analysis based on the conditions of those countries and I think based on the research and information I have that would certainly not be true for Haiti or Venezuela at this time.”
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