SPRINGFIELD — Temporary Protected Status for thousands of Haitian immigrants living and working in the United States is expected to end today.
CBS reported that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has made plans to ramp up operations to arrest and deport Haitian immigrants, according to federal documents.
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As reported on News Center 7 Daybreak, CBS said the plans include arresting migrants in Ohio and putting them on deportation flights to Haiti.
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CBS said the plans include arresting migrants in Ohio and putting them on deportation flights to Haiti.
The Department of Homeland Security suggested that immigrants living in the U.S under TPS should self-deport.
Immigration attorney Michael Davis, a senior counsel for Hayes Novick Kohn Immigration, said immigrants under TPS have some options if they want to try and stay in the U.S.
If a person has not been issued a notice to appear before an immigration judge, they could have an employer sponsor them; those with close family members in the U.S. can try to obtain Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR) status.
Davis said immigrants can also apply for asylum, but they must do so within one year of entering the U.S.
“It could take months, it could be years; there have been in the past significant backlogs of affirmative asylum cases with U.S. Citizenship and immigration services,” said Davis.
Davis said that once a person applies for asylum, they are protected from removal and will need a removal order before being removed.
“In this first bucket of cases for individuals whose only real interaction with immigration authorities was TPS, and they’ve never been put in immigration court, they’ve never received a removal order from an immigration judge, they are still going to have a pretty robust opportunity to apply for asylum if they have a claim,” said Davis.
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