In Florida, a 29-year-old expectant mother is in hiding, concerned that she will be deported at any moment.
She is among the more than 300,000 Haitian nationals who held Temporary Protective Status until the Trump administration ended the decades-long program earlier this week after a prolonged legal fight, citing improved conditions in Haiti.
Just ahead of the expiration of TPS, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement made plans to ramp up operations to arrest and deport Haitian migrants, according to two ICE sources and federal documents obtained by CBS News last week.
“I was 6 years old when I first came here,” said the woman, whom CBS News is not naming. She also said that she has no family left in Haiti.
The program was designed for Haitians who came to the U.S. to escape violence in their homeland.
The TPS program for Haitians has been shuttered despite the State Department having issued a Level 4 travel advisory warning Americans not to travel to the Caribbean nation. A new United Nations report found that there were 613 gang-related killings in Haiti between March and July, and a suspension of basic services in neighborhoods impacted by the violence.
Florida has some of the largest Haitian communities in the U.S.
“I wouldn’t have anywhere to go,” the woman responded when asked where she would live if deported to Haiti.
She argues that even though the TPS program has “temporary” in its name, “anyone who’s come to this country to pursue a legal status has to have gone through a temporary process.”
The woman told CBS News she lost her job because her TPS expired, and now her health insurance is due to run out. Her pregnancy is high-risk and requires weekly appointments. She doesn’t know how she’ll afford them.
Her partner is a U.S. citizen, so the baby will be an American wherever she gives birth.
“Yes, I do feel like I’m American,” she said. “I’ve been in this country most of my life. This is the home that I know.”
For now, she’s hunkering down like so many others. Miami’s Little Haiti appears deserted. Once bustling streets are now empty.
She only risks going outside for necessary doctor’s appointments, something she says she may soon stop doing.
contributed to this report.
