WASHINGTON — Even before Haitian immigrants in Ohio officially lost their Temporary Protected Status, the Department of Homeland Security required dozens of them to report to immigration appointments and accept ankle monitors, according to their attorneys and local advocates.

The practice of using electronic monitoring appears to only be happening in Springfield, Ohio, according to a half dozen advocates and immigration attorneys representing Haitians. 

Additionally, community leaders and lawyers from other cities with large Haitian immigrant populations such as Boston, Chicago and Miami have not seen the same tactic. One advocate has seen an increased presence of federal immigration agents in Brooklyn, New York, but so far no check-ins. The advocates and lawyers from Springfield said they do not know the exact number of Haitians under electronic monitoring. 

“It’s really just theater,” said Lynn Tramonte, the executive director of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance, an advocacy group. “They’re putting ankle monitors on people to make it look like they’re doing something, but it’s devastating for the people who are getting these placed on their ankle. They’re a constant reminder that you’re not free.”

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to a detailed list of questions from States Newsroom regarding the use of ankle monitors. 

The use of ankle monitors for immigrants who have no criminal background and previously held legal status is a departure from standard practice. Typically an ankle monitor is used for immigrants with a criminal record, an order for deportation, or a missed appearance in immigration court. 

Springfield is home to 15,000 Haitian immigrants. The community became a focus of President Donald Trump’s campaign promise to conduct mass deportations in September 2024 when he falsely accused them of eating house pets and vowed to terminate their legal protections in order to deport them. 

The Supreme Court in June cleared the way for the Trump administration to end TPS for up to 350,000 Haitians. The case is now back at a lower court in the District of Columbia, which is litigating whether the government’s decision to end protections for Haitians was based on racial animus. 

Deportation or monitoring

Following the ruling, the DHS sent letters to Haitians in Springfield as early as July 22, said Guerline Jozef, executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance. States Newsroom has reviewed a copy of the letter that dozens of Haitians in Springfield received directing them to bring all their immigration documents to an appointment at an ICE office.

Then, on July 31, about 50 Haitians had check-in appointments at the Cincinnati ICE field office. At the appointments, they were pressured to accept $2,600 to self-deport or alternatively to wear an ankle monitor. 

All of them rejected the money, Jozef said. 

“Being deported to Haiti right now is a death sentence,” she said. 

Two days later, on Aug. 2, a dozen Haitians with TPS were summoned to check-ins and left with ankle monitors, said Katie Kersh, the managing attorney for Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, a nonprofit that provides legal representation to immigrants in Ohio.

“The people getting the ankle monitors are the people who are complying … and they’re getting this thing that we connote with criminality, which is an ankle monitor, when they’ve literally gotten that because they followed the orders of the call-in letter,” Kersh said.

The practice could ramp up following Wednesday’s order from a federal judge that lifted a stay in place since February that prevented the Trump administration from ending temporary protections for as many as 350,000 Haitians. 

On the same day the stay was lifted, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in an interview with NewsNation that the department was “going after (Haitians) right now.”

“We are giving them an opportunity to either leave on their own and we’ll help you, or we’ll arrest you and send you back,” he said. “Either way, you don’t have status inside this country anymore.”

Chaotic rollout

Immigration attorneys and advocates for Haitians in Ohio described to States Newsroom a disorganized scene at the ICE check-in appointments on July 31 and Aug. 2.

Kersh said she witnessed ICE officers taking out brand-new ankle monitors that weren’t charged. 

Instructions were only provided in English and Spanish, when the first language for many Haitians is usually Creole. A translator was nowhere to be found, she added, so she brought one along.

ICE personnel appeared unable to be flexible when issues arose. A Haitian woman who worked a night shift wouldn’t have time to charge the ankle monitor given to her Aug. 2, Kersh said.

An ICE officer told the woman “to just charge it while you’re sleeping,” and the woman, whom Kersh represented, again told the officer that she worked nights, Kersh said. 

Kersh said she tried to find other options for electronic monitoring for her clients, such as a daily facial recognition check-in or a wrist monitor, but said the immigration officials would not deviate.

She said an ICE officer told her that “we are being told from headquarters that we have to ankle monitor them specifically.” 

Permission to travel to court

Another issue is the ankle monitor’s 75-mile radius, Kersh said. 

Ohio’s only immigration court is located in Cleveland, 188 miles from Springfield. So a Haitian with an ankle monitor would first have to get permission from an ICE officer to travel to their court hearing. 

“It just sort of feels like the wheels are off the bus,” she said.

Getting to the appointments was its own hurdle. 

When Haitians received a letter directing them to attend ICE check-ins, many of them had to scramble to find a way to attend because of recently expired driver’s licenses. Ohio legislators passed a law that ties a valid driver’s license to immigration status.

Jozef said the Haitians fitted with ankle monitors last week were told by ICE officers that they would need to return several weeks later and were given no other information on what would happen at future check-ins.

“We are not sure what will happen to the people, but as of right now, the tactic that is being used is to have those call-ins to be able to control the movement of the people, and to be able to target them more easily,” Jozef said.

Longtime Trump goal

Revoking legal status for Haitians to open them up for removal has been a goal of Trump’s since his first administration, but he has ramped up the effort in his second term that began after he made mass deportations a central campaign theme. 

“They really, really, really, really want to target these people,” said Geoffrey Pipoly, the attorney who represented the Haitian TPS holders before the Supreme Court. 

During the first Trump administration, the government tried to end TPS for Haiti with an 18-month wind-down period, but courts blocked the termination. 

“We went from the first Trump administration giving these folks 18 months to get their affairs in order to now, their position is: We’re not even going to give you 32 days from the final judgment of the Supreme Court … as soon as the earliest possible time that we are legally allowed to start deporting people, that’s what we’re going to start doing,” Pipoly said.

After the Supreme Court’s decision in June, lower courts typically have a 32-day deadline to implement the high court’s ruling, meaning that the estimated date for the 6-3 decision regarding Haitians would go into effect July 27. But Haitians were already receiving letters from ICE dated July 22 to report for a check-in. 

16 years of protections

Congress created TPS in the 1990s as a way for nationals who hail from countries deemed too dangerous to return to due to violence, natural disasters or other destabilizing factors, to remain safely in the U.S. The status allows them to remain and work in the United States anywhere from six to 18 months. 

In order to qualify for the program, immigrants must go through a background check and pay application fees each renewal cycle. 

TPS does not provide a pathway to citizenship, but recipients can apply for another immigration status, such as asylum. 

Of the roughly 350,000 Haitians with TPS, about 200,000 of them are in the workforce, according to the immigration advocacy group FWD.us. Of that group, they work in industries like healthcare, retail, agriculture and manufacturing. 

Haiti was first granted TPS in 2010 after a devastating earthquake. In 2021, President Joe Biden extended the protections after the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse. 

The State Department currently has a “Do Not Travel” advisory for Haiti “due to the risk of crime, kidnapping, terrorism, unrest, and limited health care.”

WASHINGTON — A federal judge lifted a stay Wednesday on the termination of temporary protections for hundreds of thousands of Haitians in order to comply with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that cleared the way for the Trump administration to remove their legal status and open them up for deportations. 

The order from U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes means that between 330,000 to 350,000 Haitians living in the United States have lost their Temporary Protected Status, even while legal arguments on a racial discrimination claim continue. 

Reyes’ order, in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, brought the case into compliance with a 6-3 Supreme Court decision that Haitians and Syrians were not entitled to postponements of their status while litigation continues.

The June Supreme Court ruling also said courts could not review the Homeland Security secretary’s decision to end TPS.

As part of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign, the administration has moved to revoke the legal status of millions of immigrants, including those with TPS, which is given to nationals who hail from countries deemed too dangerous to return to. 

The State Department has a “do not travel” advisory for Haiti due to gang violence and kidnappings. 

Work authorization for Haitians expired last week, along with some driver’s licenses for immigrants residing in Ohio and Florida, two states that have passed laws that tie eligibility for a driver’s license to immigration status.

Racial animus

The remaining legal argument is whether the Trump administration’s decision to end TPS for Haiti was based on racial animus, which would violate the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection clause. 

On the campaign trail, then-presidential candidate Trump singled out Haitians living in Springfield, Ohio, claiming that their legal protections were illegitimate and falsely accusing them of eating house pets. 

Conservative Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the majority decision in June, said that the Haitians’ arguments that their equal protection claim that their protections were terminated on a racial animus were unlikely to prevail in court.

Discovery issues 

The attorney who represented the Haitian TPS holders before the Supreme Court, Geoffrey Pipoly, told States Newsroom this week that he was not expecting Reyes to issue a new stay to halt the ending of protections. 

Pipoly and his team had not yet obtained enough evidence through discovery, a process that can take months, to try and secure another stay, he said. 

Pipoly said the documents produced by the Department of Justice so far were limited and heavily redacted.

“They’re just taking this exceptionally robust view of privilege in a way that I’ve never seen a government defendant exert privileges before,” he said. “What’s behind those redactions is going to influence the scope of our ongoing equal protection claim. But we’re going to have to litigate what’s behind those redactions.”

Reyes in her Wednesday order also denied the administration’s request to issue a stay on the discovery process and ordered both parties to submit a briefing schedule.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen Wednesday tried to advance in the Senate a bill that would create a legal pathway for immigrants with Temporary Protected Status.

However, his request for unanimous consent, a way to expedite legislation in the chamber, was blocked by Missouri Republican Eric Schmitt. 

Van Hollen said the bill, S. 2106, is in response to the Supreme Court’s decision last month to allow the Trump administration to continue with its efforts to strip legal status from hundreds of thousands of Haitians and Syrians with TPS. They are bracing to lose their deportation protections this week. 

“That decision puts them and other TPS holders at risk of deportation to countries where violence, instability, and humanitarian crises continue to threaten their lives,” Van Hollen said. 

TPS is a form of legal status given to nationals who hail from countries deemed too dangerous for return, and protections can last anywhere from six to 18 months. Immigrants must be vetted during each renewal cycle to keep their work authorization and deportation protections in place. 

Before the second Trump administration came into office, more than 1 million immigrants hailing from 17 countries had temporary protections. 

“There are already reports that ICE is planning to target Haitian TPS holders for deportation as soon as this week, which would force hundreds of thousands of people to return to a country that our State Department warns is unsafe for travel,” Van Hollen said. 

The State Department advises against any travel to Haiti, citing kidnapping and gang violence. 

“In other words, the Trump administration would force people back to a country where the State Department says, ‘Don’t go there because it’s unsafe,’” Van Hollen said. 

In a United Nations security meeting this month, senior officials gave a briefing on conditions in Haiti, citing that millions of Haitians “remain displaced or food insecure, while women and children bear the brunt of the violence.”

Van Hollen added that the bill is needed because the Trump administration’s actions to end TPS circumvent Congress’ original intent when it created the program in the 1990s. 

“The Supreme Court decision does not have to be the end of the story,” Van Hollen said. “We can write the end of the story, and it’s our responsibility as a Congress to preserve that bipartisan congressional intent from back in 1990, and we must provide that certainty that these individuals deserve.”

GOP objection

Schmitt argued a pathway for citizenship for TPS holders harmed U.S. citizens, such as immigrants holding jobs that he said should go to Americans. 

“There is nothing compassionate about flooding the labor market with more foreign workers while Americans struggle for a decent wage,” Schmitt said.

Many Haitian TPS holders work in the healthcare industry, providing care to thousands of Americans, and contribute $5.9 billion in taxes each year. 

Business leaders have warned about the economic consequences of thousands of workers suddenly pulled out of the labor market. There are roughly 330,000 to 350,000 Haitians with TPS. 

Schmitt added that Americans elected President Donald Trump on the promise of an immigration crackdown, including ending TPS. While on the 2024 presidential campaign trail, Trump vowed to end TPS for Haitians and made false statements that Haitians were eating house pets. 

“There is nothing compassionate about betraying your own citizens,” Schmitt said. “Foreign nationals do not have a right to permanent settlement here. We had an election on this issue.”

 

WASHINGTON — Hundreds of thousands of Haitian immigrants could lose their legal status as early as Tuesday, subjecting them to deportation after the U.S. Supreme Court last month allowed the Trump administration to proceed with terminating their humanitarian protections. 

The incoming loss of Temporary Protected Status for between 330,000 and 350,000 immigrants comes amid the Trump administration’s deportation campaign and continued attacks on TPS recipients who hail from countries deemed too unsafe for return. The State Department highly advises against any visit to Haiti due to kidnappings and violence by gangs. 

The Department of Homeland Security has already urged those who are set to lose their TPS to self-deport. 

“Temporary protected status is exactly that — TEMPORARY,” DHS said in a Monday social media post. “For those with terminated TPS: it’s closing time. You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.”

Several media reports have indicated that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is planning for aggressive enforcement of Haitian immigrants who lose their legal status, starting with the large population in Springfield, Ohio. 

The state’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, told CBS News on Monday he was not aware of those plans from DHS, and called any enforcement actions against Haitians a “mistake.”

Lower court stay

The exact timing of the loss of status is complicated by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., who has yet to apply the Supreme Court ruling in the case and lift an earlier stay that bars the administration from ending TPS for Haitians. A decision, potentially issuing another stay while the court hears other arguments, is expected this week. 

The U.S. Department of Justice has proposed a briefing schedule to continue arguments in the District of Columbia trial court, with the last brief due Nov. 6. Attorneys for Haitians with TPS plan to file a brief by Friday laying out their legal arguments in the wake of the high court’s decision.

Federal judges have paused TPS terminations for nationals from Burma, Ethiopia and South Sudan. Before the second Trump administration began last year, there were roughly 1.3 million immigrants on TPS hailing from 17 countries. 

Businesses, families in flux

Immigration advocates and business leaders have criticized the administration’s policy to revoke TPS.

“Most adult TPS holders are active participants in the labor force, working in industries that already face persistent worker shortages,” Rebecca Shi, CEO of American Business Immigration Coalition Action, said in a statement. “Removing these workers doesn’t just upend lives, it weakens industries that are already struggling to meet demand.”

The Haitian Bridge Alliance, which advocates for Haitian TPS holders, said in a statement that the loss of deportation protections will lead to family separation, as many recipients have U.S. citizen children.

“What we could witness will be one of the largest family separation events in modern day history,” the Haitian Bridge Alliance said.

Other avenues closing

Some TPS recipients can apply for another immigration status, such as asylum, though not all can apply or qualify. 

For example, noncitizens with TPS due to a natural disaster are unlikely to meet the criteria for asylum, which includes fear of persecution “on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion,” according to federal law. 

Additionally, the Trump administration issued a rule Tuesday that will allow for asylum officers to immediately send asylum seekers to appear before immigration judges without conducting an interview or including key evidence of the applicant’s credibility, leading to a quick denial and deportation. 

The new rule, coupled with the loss of TPS, means that recipients are unlikely to have a strong chance of winning asylum claims. 

High court ruling

Last month, the Supreme Court ruled that courts were barred from reviewing if the decision to end TPS designation made by then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem followed the proper procedures.

Even though the case was brought by TPS recipients from Haiti and Syria, the decision could also impact other TPS-related challenges to the Trump administration’s efforts to end the designation.

Following the high court’s ruling, attorneys representing TPS recipients in courts across the country are amending their complaints. 

They argue that the termination of TPS status, including work authorization, is a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s 5th Amendment’s Due Process Clause, which says the government cannot deprive a person of their “life, liberty or property” without following certain procedures. 

Lawyers have also argued that the TPS terminations were based on racial animus rather than because country conditions improved. 

They cite President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign statements that falsely accused Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, of eating house pets.  

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a July 2 panel decision requiring bond hearings for immigrants held under the Trump administration’s mandatory detention policy. 

For now, that means many immigration prisoners from all over the country can still be held indefinitely without bond in some of the nation’s largest detention centers in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. The Trump administration policy requires detention without bond for an immigrant who crossed the border illegally, no matter how long they’ve been here. 

The appeals court will rehear the case in September.

The Trump administration policy has already been disregarded by many judges, even Trump appointees in the 5th Circuit states, who have freed immigrants or ordered bond hearings despite the policy. 

Other appeals courts have struck down the policy as unconstitutional. An exception is the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has upheld the detention policy, covering centers in seven states: Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. 

Some judges in the 5th Circuit had already ordered bond hearings or releases based on the July 2 ruling. The Supreme Court has agreed to take up a related case and resolve the conflict in its next session starting in October. 

Stateline reporter Tim Henderson can be reached at thenderson@stateline.org.

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Wisconsin will begin enforcing new federal eligibility restrictions for FoodShare and Medicaid this week, cutting off thousands of refugees, asylees and other legally present immigrants from public benefits they were previously eligible to receive.

The state’s refugee services providers warn that fallback options are already stretched thin.

The Trump administration narrowed eligibility for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which helps low-income households purchase groceries. The Wisconsin program, called FoodShare, is federally funded but administered by states. The new rules —  which President Donald Trump last July signed into law as part of his “big beautiful” spending bill — exclude many noncitizens previously eligible for the program, including refugees, asylees and victims of human trafficking.

Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services (DHS) will begin enforcing the FoodShare eligibility rules on July 1, barring immigrants who fall into one of the now-excluded categories from enrolling in the program or renewing their benefits. The state will implement the Medicaid eligibility restrictions beginning Oct. 1, with some exceptions. DHS estimates roughly 7,200 people will lose access to one or both programs, nearly two-thirds of whom live in greater Milwaukee.

Neighboring states have already begun enforcing the new SNAP restrictions. Illinois, for instance, began barring refugees and asylees without green cards from the program in April. DHS spokesperson Elizabeth Goodsitt attributed Wisconsin’s slower rollout to the state’s “complex, combined eligibility system” and effort needed to “design and implement” changes.

Refugee services providers spent months bracing for impact, receiving formal notice of the cutoffs at roughly the same time as affected refugees and asylees. To ensure language barriers didn’t leave families in the dark, Lutheran Social Services of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan refugee program director Omar Mohamed said his team is checking in with affected households individually. 

Those with green cards will retain access to the programs, but Mohamed noted that a recent barrage of visa restrictions leaves green cards out of reach for many recent arrivals. Refugees can typically apply for green cards a year after settling in the U.S., but the Trump administration in January froze green card processing for anyone from 39 countries — including Myanmar, the largest source of refugees resettled in Wisconsin in recent years. Of the nearly 170 people Lutheran Social Services resettled in Wisconsin between October 2024 and September 2025, only one has secured a green card, Mohamed said. 

Ongoing legal battles over the visa restrictions have yet to clear the path to legal permanent residency. 

Without access to legal permanent residency, refugees and asylees face what amounts to an  “indefinite ban on the eligibility” for SNAP and Medicaid, said Matthew Soerens, vice president of advocacy and policy for refugee services nonprofit World Relief, which has offices in Appleton, Eau Claire and Oshkosh.

Food pantries may be many refugees’ and asylees’ best backup when they lose access to SNAP, but advocates say donated food cannot directly replace lost benefits. Milwaukee food bank Hunger Task Force has seen pantry traffic increase by 50% in the past two years, said public policy and advocacy director Reno Wright. 

The nonprofit is helping other food pantries prepare for the cutoff, but those programs are “meant to provide supplemental assistance and not long-term ongoing assistance,” Wright said. 

What families should know

Mixed-status households should still apply for benefits for the members of their families who still qualify, Wright added. U.S. citizen children of refugee parents, for instance, will remain eligible for nutrition assistance — albeit only for their own needs, not their parents’.

Children who lose access to FoodShare can turn to Milwaukee’s summer meal program, organized by Hunger Task Force and a coalition of school districts and community organizations. The program provides free meals to children ages 18 and under at more than 100 locations in greater Milwaukee. 

Alternatives to Medicaid benefits are even harder to find. Free clinics often operate at capacity, Soerens said, and while refugees may still qualify for emergency medical coverage through  Medicaid Emergency Services, the program sets a high bar for eligibility and does not cover preventative care or ongoing treatment for chronic conditions. 

While some Milwaukee-area clinics are mulling subscription-based alternatives to Medicaid, Mohamed said many of the families his organization supports can’t fit a health care subscription into their budgets.

For now, Lutheran Social Services and its counterparts elsewhere in Wisconsin will rely on donors and community partners to shore up the assistance they provide to refugees and asylees. That need has grown since the Trump administration largely suspended refugee admissions last January, cutting off funding tied to new arrivals and forcing agencies to lay off staff.

But refugee arrivals haven’t ceased entirely. At least 218 refugees have resettled in Wisconsin since last January, all from South Africa.

Wisconsin to cut FoodShare, Medicaid for thousands of refugees under new federal rules is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.