Work permits expiring for thousands of immigrants in the US

When the clock struck midnight on July 10th, tens of thousands of immigrants who once legally worked in the United States were no longer able to do so. This comes after the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration has authority to cancel the Temporary Protected Status program for people from countries like Haiti and Syria.

Temporary Protected Status allowed people who were fleeing violence in their home countries to legally live and work in the U.S.

Now that their work authorizations have expired, some politicians, like Ohio's governor, Mike DeWine, have expressed concern.

In a statement, Governor DeWine acknowledged the positive impact some TPS holders — like many Haitians who started living in his state — have had.

"Today’s decision is a legal decision. As I have stated in the past, the policy to remove these individuals from this country is a mistake,” said Gov. DeWine.

"But, more importantly, changing the immigration status of these individuals is not in the best interest of the United States nor Ohio."

Viles Dorsainvil is a Haitian TPS holder. Dorsainvil is able to keep working under another status, for now. But he says many of his Haitian neighbors in Springfield, Ohio, are suddenly unable to provide for themselves.

“I think this creates more fear, because you know, here folks live paycheck to paycheck in the sense that if you do not have unemployment, automatically you won't be able to provide for yourself or for your kids,” says Dorsainvil.

In 2024, Springfield received national attention, when then-candidate Trump falsely claimed Haitians were eating their neighbors’ pets.

But in reality, local leaders, like republican Charles Patterson, say Haitians revived a dying city.

“I've been here for almost six decades now, and I’ve always seen the decline of our community,” says Patterson. “Since 2020, basically, since COVID was over, we've seen a resurgence in our community. We've seen our community expanding.”