Fear grips Haitian communities after Supreme Court ruling unwinds protection from deportation

MIAMI (AP) — A 35-year-old nurse in Kentucky prepared her will. The single mother named a legal guardian for her four children and transferred her properties into their names.

She felt like she needed to prepare for death — in case she gets deported back to Haiti, a country she fled at 9 years old.

After the Supreme Court decided Thursday to allow the Trump administration to end legal protections for migrants fleeing violence and natural disasters in Haiti and Syria, fear ricocheted through those communities across the United States. Hundreds of thousands of people now face the prospect of deportation.

“I have been living with this internal fear, it’s like preparing for a funeral, just in case I die when going to another country,” said the nurse, who asked not to be identified for fear of being targeted for deportation.

She is among about 350,000 Haitians granted Temporary Protected Status, many of whom have legally lived and worked in the U.S. for decades and have children who are U.S. citizens. Thursday’s decision, which is expected to take effect July 27, also applied to around 6,000 Syrians. It could also open the door to the administration unwinding protections for 1.3 million people from 17 countries.

Congress created Temporary Protected Status in 1990 to prevent deportations to countries deemed dangerous, because of disasters, civil war or other violence or instability. It permits people to work legally in the U.S. but does not provide a path to citizenship. It can be renewed in increments of up to 18 months if the homeland security secretary deems conditions unsafe for return.

The Biden administration roughly doubled the number of people covered by TPS. The Trump administration ended those protections, insisting it was meant to be temporary, the countries are now safe and that President Joe Biden’s administration expanded the destination and poorly vetted its recipients.

TPS beneficiaries have, by definition, been living in limbo and their futures have been especially precarious under President Donald Trump, but the Supreme Court ruling delivered what could be a crushing blow to living and working legally in the United States.

The Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio, became a particular target of the administration during the 2024 campaign, when Trump spread fictional rumors that Haitians there were eating people’s cats and dogs. There is no evidence to support those claims.

Still, the community has been under intense pressure ever since, said Viles Dorsainvil, the executive director of the Haitian Community Help and Support Center in Springfield.

Thursday’s ruling added to the panic and chaos. People don’t know if they should withdraw all their money from the bank, Dorsainvil said. They don’t know if they can work, if their kids can go to school. Many are making preparations to leave their children who are U.S. citizens behind if they are sent away.

“As a Haitian, I always say that life has not been easy for us, nothing has been easy for us and this is another chapter in our life. And we’ve been in that type of situation since after the presidential campaign when they came up with that type of conspiracy theory of us eating cats and dogs,” he said. “We’ve been targeted. We’ve been in the spotlight for their political agenda.”

Dorsainvil said he’s focused on trying to keep people calm, telling them not to panic, not to feel hopeless or make desperate decisions that could further jeopardize them and their children.

On Thursday morning, a Haitian mother of a 17-month-old baby boy who lives in Florida woke up to the news.

“I was reading it and I just for a moment there I just felt like I couldn’t breathe, like as if something was just sitting on my chest, like my lungs couldn’t extend,” the 37-year-old said, her voice breaking.

She asked not to be identified for fears of being detained and deported.

“I did not expect this. It is so hard to accept. Maybe I am in denial but I think this can’t be real,” she said. “I had so much hope.”

She arrived in the U.S. in 1995 when she was 7 years old and graduated from high school here. But she could not go to college because she did not have legal status.

But in 2010 everything changed, when the U.S. granted Haitians protection after a catastrophic earthquake. The U.S. repeatedly extended that amid the gang violence that has consumed the country and displaced more than a million people.

The Florida woman applied, and she was able to go to school and become a nurse.

She was supposed to begin a new job in two weeks. Now she doesn’t know if she’s authorized to work.

TPS holders are overrepresented in caregiving roles, and the long-term care industry, like nursing homes and facilities for disabled people, industry groups said, could be hit particularly hard as fear and uncertainty ripples across America.

The nurse in Kentucky said she’s trying to focus on her work taking care of disabled people. But it’s hard to not think of the worst-case scenario, imagining being separated from her children, who are ages 13, 12, 8, and 2, and being sent to her home country that she left more than two decades ago. She reads in the news that there are gang wars, kidnappings, killings.

“I don’t want to go there. I am very Americanized,” she said. “It’s like someone saying, hey, do you want to go live in a horror movie? Like, you know, no, I don’t.”

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Aftoora-Orsagos reported from Springfield, Ohio, and Galforo contributed from Louisville, Kentucky.

This photo made from video shows people at a rally in support of Haitians on Thursday, June 25, 2026, in Springfield, Ohio, after the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration can end temporary protected status for Haitians and Syrians. (AP Photo/Patrick Aftoora-Orsagos)

This photo made from video shows residents watching members of a choir sing while attending a rally in support of Haitian people on Thursday, June 25, 2026, in Springfield, Ohio, after the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration is allowed to end TPS for Haitians and Syrians. (AP Photo/Patrick Aftoora-Orsagos)

FILE - People hold Haitian flags and candles during a vigil at the Little Haiti Cultural Complex after a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from ending temporary immigration status, or TPS, for Haitians, Feb. 3, 2026, in North Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)

FILE - Viles Dorsainvil, executive director of the Haitian Community Help and Support Center at Rose Goute Creole Restaurant, sits with interpreter James Fleurijean, left, a board member of the Haitian Community Help and Support Center, in Springfield, Ohio, Jan. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski, File)

FILE - People hold hands and a Haitian flag during a vigil at the Little Haiti Cultural Complex after a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from ending temporary immigration status, or TPS, for Haitians, Feb. 3, 2026, in North Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)

Andre Burakovsky is on the move again, this time to the team he father once played for.

Chicago traded Burakovsky to Ottawa on Friday for a 2027 sixth-round pick. The Blackhawks clear his $5.5 million salary cap hit off the books for next season, while the Senators get a 31-year-old winger who has twice won the Stanley Cup.

General manager Steve Staios said the Senators were happy to add a player of Burakovsky's pedigree because he “adds skill and playmaking ability to our forward group.” Dad Robert Burakovsky played 23 games with the club during its second NHL season in 1993-94, and Andre is joining his fifth organization after winning the Cup with Washington and Colorado and spending time in Seattle.

Staios was busy in the hours before adding Burakovsky, acquiring the rights to goaltender Samuel Ersson and re-signing another pending restricted free agent, defenseman Jordan Spence. Ottawa sent a 2027 fifth-rounder to rival Toronto for Ersson, whom the Maple Leafs got along with Emil Andrae in a cap space-clearing trade with Philadelphia for Joseph Woll and Simon Benoit.

Spence, 25, signed a four-year, $20 million contract. He was a big part of the team enduring injuries at the position and still making the playoffs, scoring a career-high seven goals and finishing with 31 points while skating an average of nearly 19 minutes over 73 games.

“Jordan was an excellent addition to our hockey club and proved to be a valuable asset on our blue line and stepped up when it counted last season,” Staios said. “We’re excited to have him as part of our core group.”

In other moves, the New York Rangers made their first move of a critical offseason Friday, trading forward Brett Berard to Montreal for defenseman William Trudeau.

Berard, who turns 24 in September, was once considered part of the Rangers' future core but instead gets a change of scenery with the Canadiens. Trudeau is roughly a month younger but has been in the minors and has not yet made his NHL debut, whereas Berard has played in 48 games with the Rangers and registered 10 points.

New York general manager Chris Drury is expected to make much bigger deals. Center Vincent Trocheck has been involved in trade talks going back to before the deadline in March.

Buffalo got defenseman Olen Zellweger, who also needs a new contract, from Anaheim for the 45th pick and forward prospect Anton Wahlberg. Zellweger, who turns 23 in September, replenishes depth for the Sabres after they traded Bowen Byram to Chicago earlier in the week.

The Islanders re-signed defenseman Tony DeAngelo to a two-year contract worth $9 million. He will count $4.5 million against the salary cap through the 2027-28 season.

DeAngelo, 30, is returning to the Islanders for a second full season after joining them upon returning to the NHL from a stint in the Russia-based KHL in January 2025.

Out West, Colorado re-signed defensemen Brent Burns and Brett Kulak, fresh off winning the Presidents' Trophy and losing in the conference final to Vegas.

Burns, 41 signed for next season, his 23rd in the league, at the veteran minimum of $850,000 and can make up to $3 million in incentives, according to a person familiar with the deal. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because financial terms were not disclosed.

Burns has skated in 1,007 consecutive regular-season games and is 58 away from passing Phil Kessel for the longest ironman streak in NHL history.

Kulak got a five-year contract from the Avalanche worth a reported $22.5 million. President of hockey operations and franchise great Joe Sakic is retooling the roster after reclaiming GM duties when Chris MacFarland left for Nashville.

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL

FILE - Chicago Blackhawks left wing Andre Burakovsky controls the puck during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Washington Capitals, Jan. 9, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley, File)

FILE - Philadelphia Flyers goaltender Samuel Ersson puts his glove out for a save during an NHL hockey game against the Montréal Canadiens, April 14, 2026, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Derik Hamilton, File)

FILE - New York Islanders defenseman Tony DeAngelo (77) looks on during the third period of an NHL hockey game against the Washington Capitals, Feb. 2, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass, File)