I can only describe “Temporary Protected Status” (TPS) as a good idea gone bad. Its implementation has to be described as abysmal. First, the idea: when there is a problem in a country that makes living there unsafe, be it political or as a result of natural disaster, provide a temporary refuge for the residents of that country here in the United States. Sounds great as a humanitarian principal. Frankly it’s missing several concepts: what’s next after the refuge is granted? How long is “temporary”? How and when will people be repatriated to their home countries? All this is absent from the policy. All of it.
First, a little history. TPS was first created in 1990 during the presidency of George H. W. Bush. It was revised under George the Second as part of the legislation that created the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). People who come to this country are eligible to work. So far, so good. Let’s now focus on the people from Haiti, not only because their TPS status has been revoked, but because it clearly illustrates the issues around TPS.
In 2010 there was an earthquake that devastated Haiti. Under President Obama TPS was granted allowing Haitians to come to the United States. And by and large, sixteen years later, most of them are still here. Hardly temporary. TPS has been reviewed and extended on a regular basis since then. There are a myriad of reasons for the continuation: the economy hasn’t recovered, the government has collapsed and gangs are running parts of the country, a hurricane devastated a good part of the island.
Next we need to consider a bit of history. It will help to explain some of the reasons that Haitians are not wanted here by the current thugs in the White House. The core reason is that these are Black people and the real meaning of MAGA is “Make America White Again” (OK, it never really was white!). These are the same people that J.D. Vance claimed were eating cats and dogs (they weren’t).
At the end of the eighteenth century there was a slave uprising in Haiti that drove the French from the island. The French tried to retake the colony and failed. The English tried. The Spanish tried. The attempts to quell a slave revolt were unsuccessful. And frankly? This freaked out a whole lot of white people. Why? Because if those enslaved here in the United States, primarily in the South, learned about the successful rebellion then it could happen here. The fear was real. Carol Anderson argues in her book The Second that real reason for the Second Amendment, the right to keep and bear arms, was to ensure that guns were readily available in the event of a slave uprising. A key point of consideration: before the U.S. Civil War there were more enslaved people in South Carolina than free white people. Clearly the fear was legitimate.
So how does this all play into the history of Haiti? Not only was it necessary to hide the news of a successful slave uprising, it had to be assured that the nation would fail, that there would be no example of a successful Black run country. The mess in Haiti continues today because of the actions taken more than two hundred years ago.
Coming back to today, in Mullin v. Doe the Supreme Court confirmed that a presidential administration has the power to revoke TPS for a given country. I don’t have a problem with this, at least in concept. A President can grant TPS. It makes sense that they can also end it. The problems we’ll find here are two-fold: first is the racist attack on Black people from Haiti. Second is the impact it will have on the communities where Haitians reside.
As a starting point, let’s consider a hypothetical Haitian man who came here in 2010 under TPS as a twenty year old. He found a job, fell in love, married another Haitian under TPS, they had children (children who are U.S. Citizens despite the Trump attempt to deny this to them). In the intervening sixteen years he’s developed ties to his community. He has a job with a company that relies on his skills. He and his family shop at and support local businesses. They pay taxes and have bought a home. What happens to his community when he is suddenly removed from it? What happens to a town like Springfield, Ohio? As many as a third of its 60,000 residents are Haitians here under TPS. What will happen here in Massachusetts when 16,000 residents are deported?
At this point, please be a little selfish and ask how this will impact you. It will because of how so many of the impacted and targeted people are employed. Here in Massachusetts a good part of the non-licensed people working in healthcare are Haitians. They are assistants in nursing homes, aides in hospitals. They are custodians in many of our workplaces. Often they are invisible, working late hours, cleaning and more, after most other people have gone home. What will happen when they are suddenly gone? Will a parent in a nursing home have adequate care?
I can only see the attempt to throw so many people out of the country as a hateful attack on Black people. How can one make sense of it otherwise? Springfield, OH was economically dead before the Haitian community arrived and revived it. Mike DeWine, the Republican governor of Ohio, has said this is wrong. He’s worried about the economic impact to his State when so many productive residents are forced to leave. He’s talked about businesses, manufacturers that will close because they are losing their employees.
So help me if you can. Add to the comments. Convince me how this can be good for our country. Because all I can see is that this is driven by hate and racism.
Yes, TPS is broken. We need a better plan. This is not it.
Resist
The Ugliness is the Hope, but only if we embrace the rage and act.
Resist. Persist. Oppose. Propose. Be the opposition with a proposition.