Most Haitian citizens are relying on their faith, incessantly holding prayer vigils. STOCK PHOTO

By David L. Snelling

Miami – Facing deportation after the Trump administration revoked their Temporary Protection Status (TPS), Haitians are fleeing north to Canada to eschew being sent back to their gangtorn Caribbean nation.

Most Haitian citizens are relying on their faith, incessantly holding prayer vigils, and hoping the courts will reverse Trump’s decision and allow them to stay in the U.S.

Thousands of Haitian migrants decided to flee to Canada, leading to a surge of asylum seekers the country has not seen in years.

According to the New York Post, at least 1,411 migrants have attempted to cross into Canada since April, using the New York-Canada border to enter the country.

That’s more than the entire month of March, when 1,356 migrants fled to Canada and all turned themselves in to Canadian authorities to claim asylum.

But Canada has turned them away.

“There are limits,” Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters. “We have to be human, but realistic. Canada can’t accept everyone.”

Under the U.S.-Canada Safe Third Country agreement, migrants can’t legally claim asylum in Canada if they’ve arrived in America first, with the only exception that a family member is a permanent Canadian citizen.

The President Biden-era TPS allowed Haitians to work and live here on U.S. soil which was set to expire in 2026 to escape the effects of natural disasters and political upheaval in their home countries.

Their time in America was curtailed until August 2025 under Trump’s decree, which is part of his illegal immigration crackdown operation.

The Trump administration is giving Haitians an opportunity to self deport before the deadline or ICE will detain and repatriate the migrants who see America as their only option to escape deadly gang violence.

According to the United Nations, the chaos in Haiti, which started in 2021 after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise, has escalated as the death toll has exceeded 5,600 of Haitian citizens and law enforcement officers since 2024.

The gangs have also cut off critical medical supplies and food to the Caribbean nation and Haitian citizens have run out of refuge to avoid being harmed.

Haiti has been trapped in a cycle of despair since the powerful 2010 earthquake, which caused an estimated 160,000 deaths and $8.5 billion in damage, according to the UN Disasters Emergency Committee.

The ongoing gang violence has brought Haiti to its worst point ever.

With Canada’s rejection of Haitian citizens, the window of opportunity is closing unless the federal courts stymie Trump’s deportation decree.

The courts did stop the Trump administration from deporting Venezuelans whose TPS was set to expire in August as well.

But Haitian citizens were left out.

The courts temporarily blocked Trump’s attempt to end a Biden-era migrant parole program that allows thousands of Haitian, Cuban, Venezuelan and Ecuadorian migrants to work and live in America for two years if they have a financial sponsor.

The program was another way to seek asylum.

Karen Tumlin, the founder and director of Justice Action Center, an immigrant advocacy group, said the court’s decision was a significant step toward justice.

“For not only the hundreds of thousands of people who entered the U.S. through this important process,” she said on social media. “But for the American sponsors who welcomed them to their homes and communities. With this decision, so many people throughout the country will be able to breathe a huge sigh of relief.”

But Haitian citizens are hoping for a court ruling to restore their TPS.

In March, the Haitian Americans United Inc., Venezuelan Association of Massachusetts and UndocuBlack Network Inc., filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, asking a federal court to force the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to restore TPS for migrants.

The plaintiffs said Trump’s action violated the US Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act and should be immediately enjoined and set aside, according to their lawsuit, which was filed in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

They said Haitian and Venezuelan migrants face “great” danger if they are deported amid escalating gang violence and political upheaval.

A decision is still pending in that case but a federal court in Texas spared Venezuelans from deportation.

Haitian citizens in Miami apparently fear deportation and are scrambling for help.

In Little Haiti, a community in the city of Miami, some declined to speak on the issue or reveal if they face deportation.

One woman, who didn’t want to give her name, said: “Not fair that others [migrants] can stay but my family members can’t.”

U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Miramar), the only Haitian American woman in Congress, said she is not giving up on her fight to stop the deportation of Haitian immigrants.

She along with other members of Congress continue to pressure the Trump administration to reverse its decision.

“The abrupt removal of nearly half a million individuals is inhumane and will have an irreparable impact on the nation’s economy.”

“Florida and throughout the nation, they have strengthened our workforce, supporting our airports, our hospitals, our small businesses and our schools,” she said in a statement. “I will continue to remain in communication with those who would bear the brunt of this decision and am strongly urging the Trump administration to reverse course.”

In a prepared statement, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Krisit Noem said for decades, the TPS system has been exploited and abused.

For example, she said Haiti has been designated for TPS since the earthquake in 2010 and data shows each extension of the country’s TPS designation allowed more Haitian nationals, even those who entered the U.S. illegally, to qualify for legal protected status.

Noem said in May of 2011, DHS estimated that 57,000 Haitian migrants were eligible to register for TPS, and in 2021, about 155,000 Haitians were eligible under the new designation.