Empty pews and fear of ICE on Maryland’s Eastern Shore after TPS ends for Haitians
- The Word of Life Center in Salisbury, Maryland, has seen attendance drop by more than half following the end of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians.
- Approximately 350,000 Haitians in the U.S. are affected by the termination of TPS, which has created fear of arrests and deportation within the community.
- Many Haitians are faced with the choice of finding underground work in the U.S. or returning to Haiti, where they fear for their safety due to gang violence and poverty.
- Pastor Roosevelt Toussaint has called for compassion from President Trump, emphasizing that the Haitian community came to the U.S. to work and contribute to the economy.
- ICE has reportedly been using tactics to bring Haitians in for monitoring rather than conducting widespread arrests.
These are harrowing days for the Word of Life Center, a church that has long been a vibrant hub of the Haitian community on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. A bridal shower and yard-sale barbecue were canceled. So were English-language classes. Roosevelt Toussaint, the senior pastor of the nondenominational congregation in Salisbury, said attendance at Sunday’s service dropped by more than half. Normally, more than 500 people would have heard his sermon, titled “What to do in a time of crisis.”
The reason for empty seats, Toussaint said, is that many community members are unwilling to venture from their homes, fearing arrests and deportation since the Trump administration moved to end Temporary Protected Status for more than 1 million people from numerous countries. Among those affected: roughly 350,000 Haitians who have been living and working legally in the U.S. for years.
In Salisbury, the Eastern Shore’s biggest city, about 10% of the 33,000 residents are Haitian, many of them employed under TPS as farmworkers, caregivers and in the poultry plants that are the region’s economic backbone. Like other Haitians losing TPS, they face an agonizing choice: try to stay in the U.S. and find underground work, constantly fearful of being caught by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Or return to a nation so overwhelmed by gang violence and poverty that some feel deportation is tantamount to a death sentence.
ICE has pressed ahead, according to advocates and attorneys who say the agency is calling Haitians in for ankle bracelets and telling them not to travel more than 75 miles from their home address. “Instead of them heavily descending on communities, they are using tactics to bring those people into their offices to either detain them or fit them with an ankle monitor, and telling them that if they don’t self-deport, they will be called back to report within a month,” said Guerline Jozef, president of the Haitian Bridge Alliance.
海地人临时保护身份结束后，马里兰东海岸教堂空座与对移民执法局的恐惧
这些日子对生命之道中心教堂来说非常艰难，该教堂长期以来是马里兰东海岸海地社区的一个充满活力的中心。一个婚礼淋浴和庭院销售烧烤被取消了，英语课程也被取消。萨利斯堡这家无宗派教堂的高级牧师鲁斯福·图桑表示，周日的礼拜出席人数下降了超过一半。通常，有超过500人会听他的讲道，题为“在危机时刻该怎么做”。
图桑表示，空座的原因是许多社区成员不愿意离开家，担心自特朗普政府决定结束对超过100万来自多个国家的人士的临时保护身份（TPS）后会被逮捕和驱逐。其中受影响的约有35万名海地人，他们在美国合法生活和工作多年。
在萨利斯堡，东海岸最大的城市，约10%的33,000名居民是海地人，他们中的许多人在TPS下担任农场工人、看护者和家禽加工厂的工人，这些行业是该地区经济的支柱。与其他失去TPS的海地人一样，他们面临痛苦的选择：尝试留在美国并寻找地下工作，时刻担心被移民和海关执法局（ICE）抓住，或者返回一个因帮派暴力和贫困而不堪重负的国家，一些人觉得被驱逐就等于死刑。
根据倡导者和律师的说法，ICE已经继续推进，称该机构正在召唤海地人佩戴脚镣，并告知他们不得离开居住地75英里以外。“他们不是在社区内大规模逮捕，而是使用策略将这些人带入他们的办公室，要么拘留他们，要么给他们佩戴脚镣，并告诉他们如果不自我驱逐，他们将在一个月内被召回报告，”海地桥梁联盟的主席格尔林·乔泽夫表示。