Rev. Roosevelt Toussaint:
If they ask me, can they go home? I tell them no. They tell me, can you advise me to go home? I said, don't go home because there is no guarantee you're going to come out alive.
Reporter:
That's Reverend Roosevelt TOS of the World of Life Center Ministries in Salisbury. He's talking about the stark choices facing immigrants in the area who came legally from Haiti to work. Many of them in poultry plants on the eastern shore.
Rev. Roosevelt Toussaint:
They didn't come over here illegally. They came over here. They had the permit to come to work for this specific purpose to come to work for a period of two years. Then in the meantime, they were supposed to adjust the status, but yet the program has been eliminated. Because of that, those people, they are considered illegal.
Reporter:
How did this come to pass? The Department of Homeless Security announced on June 12th. It was terminating humanitarian parole for Haitians, Cubans, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans. This immediately revoked work permits for people from those countries. Many of them were eligible to apply for temporary protected status or TPS. But then in July, DHS moved to end temporary protected status for the nearly 500,000 Haitians living in the United States. All this has triggered a wave of confusion among Haitians who fear returning to a country were chaos reigns an island run by violent gangs as much as by any central government. Most affected are recent arrivals who thought they had two years to work and perhaps apply for asylum or other visa programs in Salisbury. Dozens of them sought help from immigration counselors like Kenson Raymond.
Kenson Raymond:
So imagine having a year and say nine month of a legal status for you to work and it would just get ripped from you right in and there. On June 12th. June 12th. Yeah, so that's heartbreaking.
Reporter:
Raymond has talked to dozens of laid off workers, but the exact number is unknown spokespeople for two of the largest poultry processing plans on the eastern shore. Purdue and Mount Air did not respond to requests for information. Desant doesn't blame the companies. They have to follow the law.
Rev. Roosevelt Toussaint:
There's much the other much they can do. If the program is terminated, then they have to do thing to do things right. They cannot hire anybody who considered being illegal. So anybody who were there under that particular program, according to the government, they are illegal. So man or Purdue, we have to let them go.
Reporter:
According to Raymond, the confusion is spread to employers as well.
Kenson Raymond:
Employers was receiving emails from the government letting them know that their status are being revoked. So now there's something called E-Verify, what a lot of employers would have to use to figure out if the work permits are still valid or not. Some of these work permits when the individuals go on to the E-Verify, were good, and some of them were not good. So that's why a lot of employees didn't really know, should I keep that person or should I not hire them or I already have them as an employee, should I fire them or keep them? There was a lot of confusion going on.
Reporter:
The result is that people who thought they were playing by the rules suddenly have found the rules have changed. Putting them in the same boat with those who arrived without permission.
Rev. Roosevelt Toussaint:
This program created a lot of fear, but not only that is because there is so much news going on. ICE is arresting people, so I know some people are so afraid to walk because if they get stopped by ice, they don't know what to say. They don't know how to protect themselves.
Reporter:
For DeMar Republic Media, this is Kevin Diaz reporting.
