More than a quarter of Spokane Haitians at risk of deportation after Supreme Court allows repeal of Temporary Protection Status

Early Thursday morning, Luc Jasmin III, a prominent leader in Spokane’s Haitian community and a Washington state representative candidate, received a phone call from African Methodist Episcopal pastor Betsy Williams, who wanted to pray.

The U.S. Supreme Court had voted to allow the Trump administration to end the legal protections awarded to Haitian and Syrian migrants who fled from violence and natural disaster in their home countries, Williams told Jasmin on the phone.

With the community of Spokane Haitians tallying around 500, Jasmin said the news means about 150 Haitians could be at risk of losing work authorization and protection from deportation.

“We were confident that the Supreme Court was going to rule in the community’s favor, so this is a major shock to a lot of us,” Jasmin said. “I think folks are just really reeling right now.”

Williams said she called Jasmin to ask God for wisdom and hope during a time of “tremendous amounts of fear” being put in people’s lives.

“I ask that we will take a day of prayer, and that we will pray for our nation and ask God – is this who we are?” Williams said.

After hearing the ruling, Jasmin said he spent the morning sharing information and resources with his community to spread the word to people at risk, particularly through Creole Resources, a nonprofit that supports the local Black diaspora, mainly Haitian refugees but also folks from Afro Franco nations.

He is recommending those at risk of deportation carry multiple forms of identification and minimize travel.

The House of Representatives has already passed a bipartisan bill to extend temporary protected status for Haitians through 2029, but the Senate has yet to pass it. Creole Resources, led by Luc Jasmin’s sister Katia, is asking people to call their senators and push for them to pass the extension immediately.

Jasmin said he has been trying to gather the local Haitian community to talk through the next steps with the help of Sam Smith, an immigration attorney from Manzanita House. Jasmin has also been working with local refugee resettlement organization Thrive International and nonprofit Spokane Alliance to form a plan of action.

“The thing is, you know, TPS was not a pathway right to citizenship,” Jasmin said. “I think this just shows a glaring need for us to actually look at our immigration policies in the United States, because these are hardworking people.”

In the United States, Jasmin said about 111,000 Haitian immigrants work in the healthcare system. Haitians are one of the largest foreign-born groups in the field, according to the Migration Policy Institute.

“We all benefit from them as community members,” Jasmin said. “This should matter to all of us.”

Smith said while TPS does have the word “temporary” in it, it’s important to note that there’s supposed to be a review that determines whether the conditions of TPS countries have improved. It’s clear the dangers in Haiti have not, he said.

“I think that it is incredibly disappointing, to put it one way, and also just a miscarriage of justice that TPS, for Haiti especially, would be terminated at this time,” Smith said.

The State Department advises Americans not to travel to Haiti because of risks of crime, terrorism, kidnapping, unrest and limited healthcare, according to the State Department travel advisory website.

“So why would we choose to take a third of million people, strip them of their legal work status and ship them back to a country where they have no jobs, no resources, no functioning infrastructure – schools, hospitals, governments are completely nonfunctional – and then just leave them to suffer or die?” said Mark Finney, the executive director of Thrive International. “It’s unconscionable.”

Jasmin said unless someone with TPS gets married, applies for asylum or goes through some other process unrelated to TPS, there’s no direct route to citizenship.

“Somebody way back in the day created a Band-Aid, temporary solution, thinking that the problem of Haiti’s instability would go away after a few years, and obviously it hasn’t,” said Finney.

Finney said he hopes lawmakers can pass legislation that would make naturalization more direct for Haitians, who have “no reasonable expectation or ability to go back to the countries they came from.”

If someone hasn’t applied for asylum in the United States and they have a fear of returning to Haiti, Smith recommended applying. While there is a one-year filing deadline for asylum, Smith said losing status has historically been considered to be a circumstance that can allow filing outside the deadline.

“Reacting quickly is very important,” Smith said.

He also recommended that U.S. citizens and noncitizens with children create a family preparedness plan, designating a third person to be able to make decisions on the child’s behalf.

Smith fears what the loss of status for Haitians and Syrians means for people of other nationalities who’ve been granted TPS.

“This decision to terminate Haiti, I would say, is pretextual,” Smith said. “It is made with discriminatory intent, and I think it’s incredibly unfortunate that the Supreme Court is willing to sign off on that. It only serves to harm our Haitian and our Syrian neighbors and community members and those who care about them, those who depend on them.”