For more than a month, Bobby Kuchinsky arrived at his Florida restaurant each morning worried about whether he still had enough staff or if this might be the last shift for some of his Haitian workers. On Tuesday, he suspended six of them after they lost authorization to work in the US.
Kuchinsky, general manager of the Half Shell Raw Bar in Key West, and thousands of other business owners are living in a state of constant uncertainty because confusion clouds the status of work permits for Haitian employees with temporary protected status (TPS).
Supreme court ruling triggers TPS termination
As part of its immigration crackdown, the Trump administration terminated TPS for about 1 million people from more than a dozen countries, including 350,000 Haitians who have been living and working legally in the US since 2010. The termination was challenged in district courts, but on 25 June the supreme court sided with the government, allowing TPS to end.
The cases went back to lower courts, which generally take 32 days to announce their decisions. In the meantime, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) extended the Haitians’ work permits, often acting on the same day they expired and offering extensions of only a few days. This created confusion and desperation among employers and the Haitian community.
Work permits not extended, fear mounts
On Monday, the work permits were not extended. Fear mounted – not only due to the loss of jobs but also because of the potential for arrest and deportation to Haiti, a country the US has deemed unsafe for Americans to travel to. Almost 1.5 million people have been displaced because of gang violence in Haiti, where more than half of the country’s nearly 12 million inhabitants need humanitarian aid. More than 2,300 people have been killed and more than 1,100 injured since January, according to the United Nations.
USCIS did not immediately respond to an email from the Associated Press requesting clarification. In a written statement to AP, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said TPS was created to be a temporary program, and the agency encouraged Haitians to request a $2,600 check to buy a “free flight home.” “It’s closing time, which means you don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here,” the DHS statement said.
Haitian workers devastated by suspension
Like he did every morning, Kuchinsky logged on to the government website on Tuesday to verify the work permits of six Haitian employees who were TPS beneficiaries. This time he learned their permits were no longer valid. “I told them they are suspended,” he said after meeting with his employees. “It was horrible. It wasn’t fun … they had fear in their face, tears in their eyes.”
The manager, who has been working at the restaurant for more than 35 years, said he would keep checking the website for any changes. He decided to suspend the employees because it is easier than rehiring them if they are allowed to work again. Before they left, he handed them a package with information about their rights and documents needed in case of detention. He plans to pay them severance on Friday if nothing changes.
Miriam Singer, CEO at Jewish Community Services of South Florida, said the organization advised 18 employees that they were no longer eligible to work. “It’s been a very hard process,” Singer said. “They are devastated and without a path forward for caring for themselves and their families.” The Haitian workers provided home care to elderly Holocaust survivors.
Uncertainty for employers across industries
Robert Dominguez, associate general counsel for Engage PEO, a human resources consultancy, said TPS had been “front of mind” for many businesses. He said it was hard for employers to keep up with government changes, particularly in industries such as construction, hospitality and long-term care that rely on workers from outside the US. “You just see change after change. You just see a bunch of alerts,” Dominguez says. “I don’t think it’s clearcut for most employers.”
Katie Smith Sloan, CEO of LeadingAge, which represents non-profit long-term care homes, said member facilities had been on edge. “These providers and the patients themselves are dealing with a ton of uncertainty for months and months,” she said. “And so now it all feels like it’s about to come to a head.”
Return to Haiti could be death sentence
For some TPS holders, returning to Haiti is a possible death sentence. One worker at the Half Shell said he left Haiti because of gang violence, arrived in the US in 2016, got a work permit a few months later and requested TPS in 2020. Since then, he has been washing dishes in the restaurant industry. “Each day feels like the last day,” said the 62-year-old man, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of detention. “I don’t know how I’m going to live – pay the rent, buy food – if I don’t work.”
Kuchinsky said he was also concerned about 19 of his employees with pending asylum cases, who are also being targeted by the government.
