Markwayne Mullin said Haitians in the US on TPS should either secure permanent residence or leave after the Supreme Court stripped protections from more than 350,000 Haitian immigrants and 6,000 Syrian immigrants. He told's State of the Union that the government would help people return, putting a plane ticket and roughly $2,100 on the table for those who go back.
“Either try to fill out the paperwork and be here underneath a permanent status, or we’ll help you get back to your country,” Mullin said. “We’ll actually give you a plane ticket, plus roughly $2,100 to help you re-establish when you get there, but temporary protective status, according to the courts and in its name itself, is not permanent status,” he said.
Supreme Court decision on TPS
The Supreme Court decision on Thursday affects an estimated 350,000 Haitian immigrants and 6,000 Syrian immigrants. TPS is the temporary legal residency system the United States uses for people fleeing war, disaster or other conditions, and the ruling immediately puts the status of those holders into question as Donald Trump's administration weighs deportation steps for Haitian and Syrian immigrants.
The United States first provided TPS to Haitians in 2010 after a devastating earthquake. The United States first provided TPS to Syrians in 2012 after their country descended into civil war. The state department still warns against travel to Haiti and Syria, citing widespread violence, crime, terrorism and kidnapping.
Springfield, Ohio, feels the strain
Franky Pierre said the ruling would hurt Springfield, Ohio, where he said seven Haitian businesses now operate in the plaza that had once been dead. “For Springfield, it’s going to hurt. When I came here, this area was dead. In this plaza, there are [now] seven Haitian businesses,” Pierre said on Thursday after the decision.
He added, “All of these people are going to have to run away or go somewhere, which I’m pretty sure is going to start tonight.” Pierre came to the US with his family in 1991 during the military coup to overthrow Bertrand Aristide.
DeWine, Lawler and Bacon
Mike DeWine called Thursday's ruling a mistake. He said the situation in Haiti could hardly be much worse, that violent gangs run most of the country, the government barely functions and the economy is in shambles. Mike Lawler and Don Bacon also criticized Thursday's ruling and argued for TPS extensions for Haitian immigrants.
Trump's repeated insults against Haitians in Springfield during the 2024 election already triggered bomb threats and white supremacist marches in the city. The court's conservative majority found that Haitians suing the administration were unlikely to succeed in arguing that the administration's actions were racially biased, leaving affected Haitian and Syrian TPS holders to decide whether to pursue permanent status paperwork or take the return assistance Mullin described.
