Beyond Brave: Personal Reflections from Working With Haitian TPS Holders

For just over a year, I was deep in the trenches. 

Throughout 2023 and into 2024, I held a role in municipal government here in Boston. Working for Mayor Michelle Wu's Office for Immigrant Advancement, I was brought on specifically to work to support the municipal government's role in addressing the massive influx of Haitian refugees to the city. Due to the deteriorating conditions in Haiti and an emerging network already living in the region, Boston became a major hub for thousands of Haitian refugees. But while there was a large segment of us who welcomed these new arrivals with open arms, the challenge was always going to be finding ways in which to support them through housing, job opportunities, and language barriers. Dealing with these challenges necessitated a multi-departmental approach that would bring about several early morning meetings, bringing in representatives from housing, police, emergency response, and neighborhood support, among others. There simply was no blueprint for the work we were doing; we were fully aware that we were building this plane as we were attempting to fly it. 

In the summer of 2023, we began to see our first true increase in Haitian refugees to the city. The first challenge was housing, due largely to Massachusetts' 1983 Right to Shelter Law, which mandated that the state provide emergency housing to low-income families with children and pregnant women. Created initially to address the heartwrenching scenes of seeing homeless families, the law was flipped on its head when hundreds and later thousands of Haitian refugees arrived over the course of a year in need of guaranteed emergency shelter. Boston's emergency shelter system was designed to accommodate a reasonable number of families; however, it was not designed to accommodate dozens of families arriving daily, which we began to see in the summer and early fall of that year. With refugee families taking shelter in hospitals and later the airport, there was an obvious need to think outside the box and come up with creative solutions that extended beyond the emergency shelter system. The bulk of my work was dedicated to this exact mission, and it took an interdepartmental team to make it come to fruition. 

That work largely consisted of exploring anywhere and everywhere that could possibly house Haitian refugee families. We started with the existing infrastructure and found several faith- and community-based organizations willing to vet their members and offer housing to families. That was a strong start, but it was simply a drop in the bucket for what was needed. We then looked at buildings that could be repurposed to house refugees. This work consisted of site visits and ongoing discussions with underused or underutilized buildings. We identified one congregation that generously moved out of its rectory office space to allow for the residence of 8 Haitian families. We temporarily housed refugees in a downtown transportation building. We partnered with a local nonprofit to bring online a series of hotel-type buildings that had been closed down prior to the pandemic. And at the state's urging, we converted a local community rec center to a shelter and worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make sure the existing programming at that rec center was temporarily relocated to ensure that the community wouldn't suffer at the expense of the work we were doing. 

Through it all, we were right there working with these families. We created a welcome center at a local nonprofit where new arrivals would come and receive their housing assignment. We partnered with nonprofits that would provide Haitian language support and resources to both new arrivals and Haitian refugees already in the city shelter system. We created a day-long job fair in the heart of the Haitian community, where a dozen city departments brought representatives and made a concerted effort to hire qualified Haitian refugees to fulfill longstanding job vacancies. We met Haitian parents at the large community center and walked them and their children to school during their first week in the shelter. To support others in the field, we provided grant funding to a dozen organizations totaling over $500,000 to provide English language instruction and support systems to the Haitian refugees to try to make them more attractive candidates as they sought out local employment in the region. We even collaborated with the state and USCIS to bring over a thousand immigrants, primarily Haitians, to a regional military base to provide expedited citizenship opportunities that would have normally taken 3-4 times as long.

It was the hardest job I had ever done. But I kept at it because I saw the sheer resiliency and determination of these families. Some were able to fly to the United States. Others found their way via boat. Others still ended up in Brazil and worked their way north, through the Darien Gap, and up through Central America all the way to our southern border. Despite all that, these families had hope. Their children, although clearly fatigued from a long journey, brought smiles and hugs to our volunteers. Families were so grateful to us, simply to have a roof over their heads and access to food. Like others throughout our history, Haitian refugees were simply the latest in a long line of people fleeing violence, starvation, and conflict to come to our country for an opportunity that no longer existed in their homeland. 

And if Donald Trump and Stephen Miller get their way, they'll all be sent back to Haiti starting at this time tomorrow.

Those from Haiti who were in this country before June of 2024 qualified for Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, under the Biden Administration. This granted nearly 350,000 Haitian nationals legal status to reside in the country for 18 months and to work toward a path to citizenship. Many of these TPS holders now reside in prominent Haitian communities such as Miami, New York City, and Springfield, Ohio. Providing TPS is nothing new and often occurs when nations are in severe distress. There are even recent examples of TPS being extended for countries such as Ukraine, Yemen, Somalia, and Sudan. The Biden Administration put forth its own CHNV Program, which provided additional opportunities for refugees from Cuba, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. Each administration has the authority to extend TPS and to set refugee allowance numbers as it sees fit. The Trump Administration could easily extend TPS for Haitian refugees if it so chose. 

But it won't choose. Because it is the most xenophobic and racist administration in American history. Donald Trump and Stephen Miller would much rather believe the Haitians-eating-dogs story rather than the meeting-grateful-refugees-at-the-Boston-hotel story because it allows them to dehumanize non-White immigrants. Their racist base is dying. But that won't stop them from their xenophobic policies that will make America a pariah for generations to come. Because, in all honesty, why would immigrants and refugees want to come to America when the voters of Wisconsin and 6 other swing states could vote to make their lives unbearable every 4 years? Why would Haitians risk their lives and those of their families to come to a country where they are rewarded by one political party and vilified by another? And why would a non-White person want to live in a country where there is a rogue federal agency hellbent on ignoring the Constitution and forcibly removing anyone who looks like them? 

There are legal challenges to Tuesday's impending deadline. People like my former co-workers are mobilizing as we speak to shield and protect our Haitian friends and neighbors. Faith leaders are prepared to open their doors to TPS holders. This fight is far from over. But with the Trump Administration needing any kind of victory, no matter how hollow, expect them to ramp up ICE's involvement in places like Springfield over the next week. They need a victory after what has happened in Minnesota, and Haitian immigrants are an easy target, as we've already seen the lengths Republicans will go to vilify them. People like Stephen Miller, who have never met a refugee in their lives, will continue to paint them as subhuman. But for those of us who have had the great privilege of working with them, we know that Haitian refugees are the ones who overcome so much to be here. They are the ones who make America great.

And no matter what happens tomorrow, we will continue to share their story with anyone who needs to hear it.