ICE plans to target Haitians as Temporary Protected Status is set to end, sources say - CBS News

What the report says

CBS News reports that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has prepared plans to increase arrests and deportations of Haitian migrants as Temporary Protected Status protections for more than 300,000 Haitians are set to end. Citing two ICE sources and internal federal documents, CBS said the plans include operations in Ohio, including areas with large Haitian communities such as Springfield, and could involve rapidly placing some migrants on deportation flights to Haiti. The documents suggest operations could begin as early as this week, though CBS said the scope remains unclear and the plans are not final.

The development follows a Supreme Court ruling last month that sided with the Trump administration’s effort to end TPS programs for Haitians and Syrians, with a binding mandate expected to be issued to lower courts Monday, according to the report. Once TPS lapses, affected immigrants lose work authorization and deportation protection unless they have another legal status. CBS noted that people without removal orders generally have the right to appear before an immigration judge before deportation.

The Department of Homeland Security told CBS it does not discuss current or future operations, while defending the administration’s position that TPS has functioned as a “defacto amnesty program” and urging affected migrants to leave voluntarily. Guerline Jozef of the Haitian Bridge Alliance told CBS that fear of deportation has caused severe distress in Haitian communities.

The report adds that expanded deportations to Haiti would raise political and humanitarian concerns because of widespread gang control and insecurity, especially in Port-au-Prince. TPS for Haiti dates to the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake, and the Trump administration has also moved to end or scale back TPS for several other nationalities.