A complex federal legal battle over immigration status seemed to set a deadline for many of Springfield's roughly 12,000-15,000 immigrants from Haiti: July 27.
Now that day has passed, and it's unclear exactly what comes next.
Reports from CBS and other outlets indicate the Trump administration is gearing up to begin deportation efforts in Springfield and other places with large numbers of Haitian immigrants. But the legal battle over their immigration status isn't quite over.
Michael McClelland works with Springfield G92, a coalition of faith organizations that advocates for immigrants, including the city's Haitian community. He says they're feeling deep anxiety about potential ICE activity following the expiration of their immigration status.
"The feeling is panic," he told WVXU. "The people of the Haitian community here have been waiting for months and months and months hoping this is all going to work out, and it hasn't."
Many of the Haitians living in the city of roughly 60,000 people held what's called Temporary Protection Status until Monday. This immigration designation has existed since the 1950s to provide temporary deportation protections to people who fled to the U.S. outside formal immigration processes to escape natural disasters or violence.
The U.S. government granted Haitians TPS following a devastating 2010 earthquake and subsequent political unrest in the country.
The Trump administration has argued it's safe for people who fled Haiti to go back. The administration moved to terminate TPS status for Haiti in February this year.
But legal challenges argued that then-Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem exceeded her authority in terminating TPS for multiple countries and didn't consult other agencies in making that decision.
Critics point to the fact the U.S. Department of State currently has a Level 4 "do not travel" advisory for Haiti due to gang violence and political instability, for example.
Lower federal courts paused the Trump administration's moves to rescind TPS for various countries like Haiti and Syria. But a U.S. Supreme Court decision June 25 ruled that federal courts can't direct DHS, clearing the way for deportations to move forward.
After the Supreme Court's decision, TPS for Haitians and Syrians was set to expire July 24. But a federal court extended that to July 27.
Even with that deadline, the legal battle over TPS for Haitians isn't quite over. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit challenging the removal of TPS for Haitians argue the decision was made for discriminatory reasons. Attorneys pointed to false claims repeated by Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance during the 2024 election, including one claiming Haitians in Springfield were eating neighbors' pets.
The Supreme Court's conservative majority ruled those statements alone weren't enough to prove discriminatory intent in ending TPS for Haitians. But the ruling does still allow the plaintiffs challenging the administration's actions to undertake discovery in their lower court challenge — basically, they can still seek evidence from the government about how it made its decision.
In the meantime, a bill in the U.S. Senate, S.4814, would extend TPS for Haitian immigrants until April 2029. It has some bipartisan support — and the U.S. House passed its version of the bill — but some Republican senators have put up opposition to the legislation and it's unclear if it will pass.
McClelland and others in Springfield say the uncertainty has been challenging for Haitians in the community. Many lost jobs after the Supreme Court decision as employers became unwilling to navigate the uncertain legalities of employing them. Most are laying low and waiting for some level of certainty about what comes next. Others have already left, advocates say.
McClelland says the Haitians who came to Springfield have pumped new life into the post-industrial city.
"They're working," he says. "They're contributing to the tax base. They're buying groceries. They're going to movies. Everything. It's going to be a huge hit to our tax base. They're also employees — they're filling jobs. What do you do when a fourth of the people in a city leave? They've brought a lot, and we're going to lose that. It's going to be a big blow to Springfield in many, many ways."
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