“Obviously, the vast majority of Haitian TPS beneficiaries are economically better off here than in Haiti ... But that does not mean that the community or the country as a whole benefits from their presence,” said Ira Mehlman, media director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a group that filed an amicus brief in support of the Trump administration’s attempts to end Haiti’s TPS.
But pro-TPS organizations and the judge in the Miot v. Trump case say this administration has ignored the substantial economic contributions of foreign-born workers and residents. They say the loss of work authorization for the more than 330,000 Haitian nationals with protected status across the nation would be a major economic blow.
“If the Haiti TPS designation is terminated, the economic fallout in the many communities where Haitian TPS recipients reside will be swift and devastating,” says an amicus brief filed in support of the plaintiffs in Miot V. Trump that was signed by 91 members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, including Democratic Ohio congresswomen Joyce Beatty and Shontel Brown.
This debate is playing out locally, with some state and local leaders fearing that ending TPS for Haiti endangers the ability of potentially thousands of Haitians in the Springfield area to legally work here, negatively impacting the local economy. But other residents feel that ending TPS would open up jobs and housing opportunities.
Credit: Bryant Billing
Credit: Bryant Billing
Termination announcement
Last fall, DHS and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services published a notice in the federal register announcing that DHS Secretary Noem terminated TPS for Haiti, effective after Feb. 3.
But before that went into effect, federal district Judge Ana Reyes in Washington, D.C., temporarily halted the cancellation while a lawsuit filed by TPS holders proceeds that challenges the legality of the process Noem used to reach her decision. The Trump administration has asked an appellate court to reverse Reyes’ pause, and a decision on the government’s appeal could come any day.
The federal register notice says Noem determined that Haiti no longer meets the conditions for TPS designation and allowing Haitian nationals to remain in the country is against the national interest. The notice states that national interest is a standard that includes economic considerations, like the adverse effects on U.S. workers and communities, plus factors such as public safety and foreign and immigration policy.
In a memorandum opinion explaining why she paused Haiti’s TPS termination, Judge Reyes wrote that while Noem states that an analysis of country conditions should include economic considerations, she apparently ignored the billions of dollars Haitian TPS holders contribute to the economy.
She said that evidence presented to the court on behalf of the plaintiffs — that Noem failed to acknowledge or address — suggested that TPS holders pay about $1.3 billion annually in taxes, plus make other contributions. The judge also said Noem failed to analyze the impact on U.S. communities, industries, employers and local economies if Haitian TPS holders lose work authorization.
Reyes said she paused the termination because the evidence so far suggests Noem did not take the appropriate and mandated steps to reach her determination to cancel the designation.
In court documents requesting to stay Reyes’ ruling, the Trump administration said that Noem’s determinations about TPS designations are barred from judicial review by statute approved by Congress. The administration said the district court judge is in no position to second guess the secretary’s determinations, including about economic considerations and threats.
The federal government has said that potential economic disruptions caused by cancelling TPS is an inherent risk that is part of a temporary program. The government says the potential loss of employment, health benefits and other protections is not an “irreparable injury” that justifies blocking the TPS termination from taking effect.
Economic impacts
Attorneys for the plaintiffs, which includes a TPS holder who lives in Springfield, wrote in an amended complaint that Haitian TPS holders have helped power Springfield’s economic recovery. Springfield officials say Haitian people have started new businesses and work in hard-to-fill jobs in local warehouses, distribution centers and other facilities. An estimated 10,000 to 15,000 Haitians live in the Springfield area.
Credit: Tom Gilliam
Credit: Tom Gilliam
Nearly 80% of TPS holders are in the labor force, meaning they are employed or are actively looking for work, which compares to about 65% of non-TPS individuals, says the Penn Wharton Budget Model, a nonpartisan, research-based initiative at the University of Pennsylvania.
Pro-immigration groups like the National Immigration Forum say that immigrants account for about one-fifth of the U.S. workforce and the loss of TPS for tens of thousands of workers or more in the last year has led to labor shortages in vital sectors.
“You have all of these work-authorized people who are here doing the right thing, checking in, they’ve got legal work authorization — these are not undocumented immigrants, they are legal workers — who are being taken out of the labor market, and that’s having a major impact on a number of fields that rely on these workers," said Laurence Benenson, vice president of policy and advocacy with the Forum.
According to the Forum, the decline in foreign-born workers since Trump’s January 2025 inauguration has created challenges for industries that depend on these employees, like agriculture, construction, hospitality, food manufacturing, transportation, cleaning services and home health care and medical care.
Across the country, thousands of Haitians with TPS work in the health care industry, said the Service Employees International Union, a labor union with 2 million members, that wrote an amicus curiae brief in support of the plaintiffs.
The American Federation of Teachers says many of its 1.8 million union members are foreign born, and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union says some of its members who work in the meatpacking and food processing industries are Haitian TPS holders.
The Forum said TPS holders and foreign-born individuals inject billions of dollars into the economy through their spending on housing, food, goods and services, health care and education. TPS holders also have a higher rate of entrepreneurship than U.S. born individuals, says the American Immigration Council.
Companies that have employed local Haitian community members include Amazon and Dole, according to local leaders and TPS holders interviewed by this news outlet. The Springfield plaintiff in the Miot v. Trump case is a 34-year-old nurse at a local medical center who used to be a doctor in Haiti. Other plaintiffs are employed as a lab assistant, software engineer and a receptionist and administrative assistant.
Mehlman, with the Federation for American Immigration Reform, says that while individual businesses may benefit from TPS holders, they will have to adapt to their eventual departure because the program was designed to provide only a temporary reprieve during a crisis until country conditions improve.
“No business has a reasonable expectation that the government will perpetuate a program that is no longer justified on the merits, simply to provide them with a customer or client base,” Mehlman said.
TPS beneficiaries and undocumented workers accept wages and working conditions that American workers would find subpar, he said. If TPS holders and undocumented workers were out of the picture, employers would have to increase compensation and improve workplace conditions to attract U.S.-born people to fill their job openings, he said.
“We should not have or perpetuate government programs and policies that undermine the core interests of American workers,” he said.
Mehlman also claimed that TPS beneficiaries in general receive more taxpayer-funded public assistance and benefits, from services like emergency care, than they pay in taxes.
About the Author
