Government, Humanity, Immigration
TPS ended for Haitians. Here’s how it’s impacting the Deep South Side of Chicago
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Pastor Allens Gilles stands in front of his congregation at the Chicago Bethlehem French SDA Church on an early Saturday September morning. He’s delivering a sermon to dozens of people standing before him. Many of his churchgoers are dressed to the “T”. The men are in dark suits and the women are wearing beautiful white gowns and big church hats.
Lately, Pastor Gilles has seen a decrease of people attending his church.
“In this church there are many members, not only they lose a job, but also they are afraid,” he said. “They are afraid to even come to the church. They are afraid to participate in any social gathering.”
These low numbers have become Pastor Gilles’ new reality.
“I cannot force them to come,” he said. “If I were in their situation I probably would’ve have done exactly the same thing because you never know what could have happened.”
The fear of navigating life after TPS is something that members of Pastor Gilles’ congregation have also seen firsthand.
“I know one of guy, he’s very scared,” said Nicole Hanry, who lives in a suburb outside of Chicago. “This guy, his family are in Haiti, three kids and his wife. He don’t have money to send to them and then he says, “Yeah, I don’t know what to do.” He is very depressed.”
Pastor Gilles has heard these kinds of stories very often within the last few weeks. He’s also had to offer advice and have difficult conversations with those who have directly lost TPS.
“You have to live with the mindset that something can happen and worst case if you were to be deported, have a plan,” he said. ”The only thing that we can do is to pray for them. God has the last word.”
Leaving Haiti
In early 2022 Patrick made the difficult decision to leave Haiti and migrate to the United States after a frightening encounter on his way to work.
He was driving on a nearly empty road when he saw two men riding motorcycles be taken away at gunpoint. Armed men essentially kidnapping people on the street.
Patrick, who asked us to use a pseudonym to protect his identity, was shocked at what he saw take place just feet from him. He immediately slammed on his breaks, turned his car around and sped off away from the scene.
It had been a year since the Haitian President, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated and the country had begun to spiral into chaos. What Patrick had just witnessed was part of the fallout following the assistantion because violent gangs had taken over parts of the country.
So a few months later Patrick was living in Chicago, where he already had family members, and soon after he was granted Temporary Protected Status under the Joe Biden administration. Since then, he’s lived in the United States for more than four years and has built a life for himself. Patrick had grounded himself in Chicago.
Then, in late July 2026 the Trump administration announced that TPS for Haitians was coming to an end. At the time there were more than 300,000 Haitians who would be affected. People who, like Patrick, would lose protection from deportation, whose futures in this country would be uncertain.
Patrick compared his journey with TPS to the way someone prepares for an upcoming road trip.
“You make sure you got a plan, you got an itinerary, and suddenly you run out of gas,” he said.
Economic Impact
Everyday Americans will feel the economic impact of the end to TPS, said Rebecca Shi, Chief Executive Officer of the American Business Immigration Coalition.
“When our American seniors wake up one day and their trusted caretaker suddenly has disappeared after the termination of TPS, that’s completely destabilizing, disorienting, for American senior citizens,” Shi told Latino USA.
She estimates that about thirty percent of Haitians who had TPS worked within the healthcare senior care sector. AndIt’s not just the healthcare industry that will feel these economic strains. She predicts that it’ll ripple across sectors in the workforce.
“We have hotels and small businesses where Haitians, whether it’s in Key West, where 20 percent of the population is Haitian, or in Central Florida, in Orlando, where Haitians were a core piece of the hospitality and tour-tourism industry,” she said.
Shi estimates that the economic impact goes even further when you consider that TPS has also ended for other immigrant groups like Venezuelans, Syrians and Hondurans under the second Trump administration. However, she has a proposed vision for lawmakers to act on in order to help stop the economic strain that comes with these most recent immigration policy changes: a pathway towards legalization.
“ It’s gonna be an economic shot in the arm,” she said. “Various studies from conservative to more liberal have shown across the board that if you just legalize the dreamers or immigrants on TPS that’s easily a $20 billion injection to the economy. and that is not to even count the tax contribution, the consumer income and purchasing power of this population when you’re able to legalize them.”
Shi remains hopeful that there will be a shift towards broader immigration reform that can benefit everyone. It’s a hope that people like Pastor Gilles also holds close to himself.
We need to lock hands together and if we rally together we can become a strong force to counteract this policy,” he said. ”If we can rally everybody we’re gonna send a strong message.”
Lately, there’s been a message Pastor Gilles has been sharing with his congregation in order to help bring them some ease.
”In two years it’s not gonna be the same thing,” he said. “As a matter of fact November is around the corner. I tell my people this also shall pass.”
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