Today the U.S. Supreme Court hears the Trump decision to end Temporary Protected Status for Haitians,. With many living on the Eastern Shore Delmarva Public Media's Kevin Diaz has this look at one family whose fate will be decided by the high court.
RUSH: The Supreme Court is hearing arguments today [over] the fate of hundreds of thousands of Haitian immigrants in the United States. Many of them live on the Maryland and Virginia Eastern Shore, as well as in Delaware. At issue is whether the Trump administration can end a humanitarian program known as Temporary Protected Status, or TPS. The program for Haitians was established after the devastating earthquake in 2010, but the administration says conditions have since normalized and it's time for the refugees to return. But many of those immigrants dispute that assessment. Delmarva Public Media's Kevin Diaz spoke to one woman who is directly affected.
DIAZ: Lynda Charles is a doctor from Haiti and a mother of three. She has worked for the United Nations and for a large healthcare provider in Salisbury. She's been an author, a consultant, and a medical interpreter. But after her work permit expired, her only hope of staying in Seaford with her three young children is if she's granted asylum or Temporary Protected Status. Like thousands of other Haitian immigrants on the Eastern Shore, her hopes hang on the US Supreme Court, which is considering a Trump administration order ending humanitarian protection for Haitians.
CHARLES: I'm praying that they don't end TPS, but if that happened, there will be a big, big loss for the Haitain community, a really major loss for this community, and I am praying that doesn't happen.
DIAZ: Dr. Charles has worked, paid taxes, written books, led a church ministry, but finds herself helpless in the face of a looming eviction order that could turn her life upside down.
CHARLES: When you have people in your house that you don't want anymore, there's a way to do it. If you say you don't want them in the country, please give them grace.
DIAZ: Lynda Charles is better off than most. She's educated, well-traveled, and her husband, a bank manager in Haiti, helps support the family, but she's faced death threats and the region where they lived in Haiti is rife with gang violence.
CHARLES: It's where we have the worst, worst gang members. The worst thing that you could hear was in this area also. So I had to because of that, because of my children, because they're still young, I said, I'd rather lose a job instead of losing my family.
DIAZ: The Trump administration has declared that conditions have improved in Haiti and that it's no longer necessary for people like Lynda Charles to stay. But human rights advocates say there's no basis for that conclusion, and that in fact, the conditions in Haiti are worse today than they were in 2010 when a major earthquake brought over waves of immigrants.
RAYMOND: Prior to the expiration, there should be some type of evaluation of the country to determine if that country is fit or qualified to continue to receive or renew that TPS.
DIAZ: That's Kenson Raymond, an immigration counselor at the Word of Life Church in Salisbury.
RAYMOND: There is no evidence that there was actually a expert that actually reviewed the condition of Haiti.
DIAZ: Bernadette Fouche, an immigration advocate in Salisbury, argues that Temporary Protected Status is a misnomer. Ending the protections for refugees should be based on actual conditions in their countries, not merely on the passage of time.
FOUCHE: All of these TPS programs, they put them in place because of the conditions in this countries - insecurity, war, gangs, drugs, you name it.
DIAZ: For Lynda Charles, forced departure would mean not only danger for her family, but a loss for those with less resources than her who she ministers to at her church in Seaford.
CHARLES: Going back to Haiti and leaving my children here would've been one of the worst thing that has happened. I'm educated, but not every family can do that. Not every people can get themselves ready for a situation like that.
DIAZ: Ready or not, the Haitian community in Maryland and across the nation awaits a Supreme Court decision in the coming months. For Delmarva Public Media, this is Kevin Diaz.
