“You have to wonder if the government really believes it can either practically or legally remove all of these people if it’s trying to get everyone to self deport,” Kersh said. “If the law’s behind you to just remove all the Haitians, then why are you trying so hard to get them to remove themselves? It’s not because you care about people ... it’s not because they really care about immigrants or they really care about their children; I think we can all agree that that’s not something they’re really worried about.”
Ohio has no family detention centers and men, women and children cannot all be held together, Kersh said. They could be held in a jail that has different pods for men and women.
“I have some real questions about the logistics and capability that they would have to detain people in a facility when they are family units and we don’t have family detention centers [in Ohio],” Kersh said. “It could mean they go after the dads and men and put them in a jail-like facility that’s like a pod. It’s possible but particularly the act of the family units is what I don’t understand.”
Much of what is happening in immigration enforcement across the nation has been challenged by lawsuits alleging illegal action, Kersh said.
Recently, some Springfield advocates shared concerns about asylees and asylum applicants not being “safe” from enforcement. They met with a representative from U.S. Sen. Jon Husted’s, R-Ohio office recently. They were also told to help immigrants find a “third country” to which they should “self-deport,” an advocate said.
Deporting a person with asylum is “really legally questionable,” Kersh said.
“There’s a difference between somebody who has a pending application for asylum and somebody who has an actual grant of asylum and there’s definitely a difference between somebody who has a green card, because the law would provide them an opportunity for a hearing because they have those statuses,” Kersh said. “If you’re going to take those benefits away, you have to have a reason, and they should have a hearing under the law and an opportunity to defend themselves.”
People with pending asylum applications have fewer protections but Kersh emphasized that people with “real fears of their safety” in their home country should not be encouraged to give up their legal rights to assert their claims.
The federal government has more heavily relied on “third countries” as a mechanism for removal, Kersh said. In some asylum cases, a judge has already established an immigrant has a “well-founded fear of persecution” if they were return to their home country, or the immigrant has asserted they will face harm if they return home in their asylum application.
President Donald Trump’s administration is creating agreements with third countries to accept these immigrants while their proceedings are pending or they are waiting for scheduled hearing, according to ABLE.
“The big issue is ... they haven’t really had a fair opportunity to assert whether they would be safe in those other countries, and we have seen instances where those third countries have just turned around and deported those people back to their home country,” Kersh said.
Kersh said this administration may not be honoring its legal obligations under the Refugee Act of 1980, the Immigration and Nationality Acts and the due process clause of the U.S. Constitution.
Temporary Protected Status for Haitians was initially set to end Feb. 3, 2026 after the Biden administration extended it, but the Department of Homeland Security announced an official termination would happen Sept. 2, 2025, saying that conditions in Haiti had improved and its immigrants no longer meet the conditions for TPS.
A federal judge then ruled that ending TPS before Feb. 3, 2026 was unlawful, blocking a truncation of Biden’s extension. TPS is still set to expire Feb. 3, 2026 as of now. A judge has not yet ruled on that expiration.
The law requires the end of TPS to be announced at least 60 days prior to the end date and the government has historically waited as long as possible before making such announcements, Kersh said, giving it time to complete a required thorough analysis of country conditions to decide if they merit termination of the program.
Gang violence has displaced 1.3 million people across Haiti as the local government and international community struggle with the spiraling crisis, according to a report from the International Organization for Migration. There has been a 24% increase in displaced people since December 2024 with gunmen having chased 11% of Haiti’s nearly 12 million inhabitants from their home, the report said.
TPS for Haitians was initially activated in 2010 after the catastrophic earthquake and has been extended multiple times since then.
Credit: Tom Gilliam
Credit: Tom Gilliam
With her own clients, Kersh said she is seeing a mix of some Haitian immigrants being “very scared” and many living more “day-by-day,” relying on survival skills they’ve learned from a long period of living under unrest and unreliability.
Many American community leaders who advocate for the Haitian community are panicking about proposed enforcement actions, Kersh said.
“I have some concerns about making sure that we are centering the Haitian community’s agency and determining what steps they want to take in their own cases, because it’s really their lives and their safety at the end of the day,” Kersh said. “Really the only person who can decide whether they would like to stay in the United States and face a fear of detention or leave to another country and face whatever awaits them there is the person who is the applicant or the immigrant.”
About the Author
