Brooklyn's Haitian community is riddled with fear and anxiety as they await a court decision on whether thousands in the immigrant community has the right to work in the United States.
There was an uneasy undercurrent at a recent Haitian Independence Day celebration at Brooklyn Borough Hall, where a major issue for attendees was whether a federal judge would preserve the designation, called Temporary Protected Status, after the Trump administration said it was ending the program on February 3.
TPS allows immigrants from designated countries experiencing turmoil to legally live and work in the U.S. Haiti was initially conferred TPS status in response to the catastrophic earthquake that devastated the country in January 2010, killing more than 300,000 people and displacing more than 1.5 million. Since then, TPS for Haiti has been redesignated and extended under multiple administrations because of additional natural disasters, public health crises, and political instability.
Natalie Francios-Lafleur, an administrator in Community School District 23, which primarily covers Ocean Hill and Brownsville, said she has seen fear permeate in school communities.
Many high school students in Brooklyn have stopped attending school as they are afraid of being outdoors, she said.
“It has caused a great deal of stress to the Haitian community because people are here looking for better, trying to strive for better, and now they're putting a precarious position where they are scrambling with one month or so before they have to either exit or find other means,” she said.
The Haitian community is not being given a fair chance, and the revocation of the designation will break up families, she added. "It's adding trauma upon trauma because they were escaping a country in turmoil, which provided a lot of trauma to begin with."
At the event in Borough Hall, which celebrated many local Haitian community leaders, City Council Member Rita Joseph said uplifting the frightened community is more urgent than ever.
"Our people continue to face extraordinary challenges both in Haiti and throughout the diaspora," she said. "Uplifting the Haitian community means more than celebration- it means action. It means investing in Haitian-led organizations, protecting immigrant families, expanding access to education and healthcare, supporting cultural preservation, and ensuring that Haitian voices are heard at every level of government.”
Brigid Turner, who has volunteered for five years in a school that has many Haitian students and staff, said the uncertainty has everyone terrified.
"They are fearful for their families and for the future," she said. "I work in [a] school, so I see some of that spilling over to their children. And what we don't want to have is children living in fear and people living in fear."
City Council member Chi Ossé said yanking TPS was a "draconian" decision.
“This will severely impact Haitians not only here at home, but Haitians abroad as we see political destabilization in our mother country of Haiti," he said at the event. “It is our job as elected officials, as Haitian Americans to speak up for our community, to make sure that we are not neglected, and to point a finger and highlight a lot of the atrocities that are happening and stemming from the Trump Administration.”
