{"id":28856,"date":"2026-08-05T18:39:40","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T13:39:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=28856"},"modified":"2026-08-05T18:39:40","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T13:39:40","slug":"empty-pews-and-fear-of-ice-on-marylands-eastern-shore-after-tps-ends-for-haitians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=28856","title":{"rendered":"Empty pews and fear of ICE on Maryland\u2019s Eastern Shore after TPS ends for Haitians"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"prism-article-body\">\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \"><span class=\"oyrPY qlwaB AGxeB  \">SALISBURY, Md. &#8212; <\/span>These are harrowing days for the Word of Life Center, a church that for many years has been a vibrant hub of the Haitian community in Maryland\u2019s Eastern Shore region. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">A bridal shower and yard-sale barbeque were canceled. So were English-language classes. The senior pastor of the nondenominational congregation in Salisbury, Roosevelt Toussaint, said attendance at Sunday\u2019s service dropped by more than half. Normally, more than 500 people would have heard his sermon, titled \u201cWhat to do in a time of crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The reason for empty seats, Toussaint said, is that many community members are unwilling to venture from their homes, fearing arrests and deportation since the Trump administration <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/temporary-legal-protections-supreme-court-haitian-syrian-14d4851b164093e4182e953ae5142edd\">moved to end Temporary Protected Status<\/a> for more than 1 million people from numerous countries. Among those affected: roughly 350,000 Haitians who have been living and working legally in the U.S. for years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">In Salisbury, the Eastern Shore&#8217;s biggest city, about 10% of the 33,000 residents are Haitian, many of them employed under TPS as farmworkers, <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/immigration-haiti-nursing-homes-elderly-tps-cb291c13c9c9868ad31092183c8e039d\">caregivers<\/a> and in the poultry plants that are the region\u2019s economic backbone.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Like other Haitians losing TPS, they now face an agonizing choice: Try to stay in the U.S. and find underground work, constantly fearful of being caught by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Or return to a nation so <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/haiti-elections-voter-registration-gang-violence-36b6123f2a575d561bf8cd96aeb4ae40\">overwhelmed by gang violence<\/a> and poverty that some feel deportation is tantamount to a death sentence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Toussaint, the Word of Life Center&#8217;s pastor since 1995, said he had a message for President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cWe\u2019re expecting you to have compassion for our people. They haven&#8217;t done anything wrong,\u201d Toussaint said. \u201cAll they came to this country to do is to work, to make a difference in our economy. \u2026 There\u2019s no security at home. If you really send us over there, you send us to die.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">At Sunday&#8217;s service, the first since the expiry of TPS protections, Toussaint exhorted his congregants to persevere.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cI\u2019m praying this afternoon that God can make you invisible to the enemy,\u201d Toussaint told them in Haitian Creole. \u201cThey put a lot of terror in your heart. But God has come to tell you: \u2019Do not be afraid!\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Some of the congregants who are U.S. citizens said they attended the service in solidarity with those losing TPS. Among them was Marjorie Estim\u00e9, who wore a Haitian flag draped around her neck.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cI want to tell the president of the United States to stop the ICE program, so that the people can work, so ICE can stop shooting them, persecuting them, and we can go back to normal,\u201d Estim\u00e9 said about the Trump administration&#8217;s <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/poll-immigration-enforcement-trump-deportation-02c3c9a5f654dd8f2da7f4c2d9274706\">crackdown on legal and illegal immigration<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">But ICE had been pressing ahead, according to advocates and attorneys who say the agency is calling Haitians in for ankle bracelets and telling them not to travel more than 75 miles from their home address.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cInstead of them heavily descending on communities, they are using tactics to bring those people into their offices to either detain them &#8230; and telling them that if they don\u2019t self deport, they will be called back, to report within a month,\u201d said Guerline Jozef, president at the Haitian Bridge Alliance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The TPS termination affecting Haitians was challenged in district courts. On June 25, the <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/immigration-supreme-court-haiti-syria-tps-1bbbf8115f984a0d53336656924e989d\">U.S. Supreme Court<\/a> \u202fsided with the government, allowing the\u202f <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/immigration-temporary-protected-status-haiti-syria-trump-3c76d4ea1a1c9c8287a0029a8fc76ac0\">TPS program to end<\/a> while <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/immigration-tps-temporary-status-haiti-work-jobs-trump-8c35f8dd6389185e20dbed0f69fc8f65\">triggering weeks of confusion<\/a> as to the timetable for enforcement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">On July 27, the work permits were not extended, and fear mounted in Haitian communities \u2014 not only due to the loss of jobs but also because it exposed them to deportation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cIt\u2019s just like a hurricane at Category 5 \u2014 that\u2019s how bad it is,\u201d said Samson Orneus, a member of Toussaint&#8217;s church. He helps the pastor lead the local Haitian Development Center of Delmarva and runs WOLC Immigration Services, an immigrant assistance business in Salisbury.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Throughout last week, news spread on social media about arrests by immigration authorities at gas stations and outside supermarkets. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cWe had a population living legally, raising their kids, paying their bills, and with the decision (to end TPS), they were left in limbo,\u201d said Marie D. Fouch\u00e9, founder and executive director of Safe Harbor Circles. It provides support to immigrant communities across the Eastern Shore and recorded more than a dozen arrests of immigrants in recent days, including some with TPS.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cThey have left their kids at home,\u201d she said. \u201cThey went to the grocery, shopping at Walmart to cook for them and feed their family. But they got arrested in the parking lot, and they\u2019ll never go back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Asked about ICE enforcement activities in Salisbury, the Department of Homeland Security said via email that DHS \u201cdoes not discuss ongoing or future operations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cTemporary Protected Status is exactly that \u2014 temporary,\u201d the email said. \u201cFor too long, TPS has been allowed to function as a de facto amnesty program despite Congress never intending it to be permanent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">At a nearly empty barber shop in Salisbury, a Haitian on TPS ventured in for a haircut. Like several others, he asked to remain anonymous for fear of deportation. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cThey\u2019re not going after the people committing crimes,\u201d said the 39-year-old man, who has been a caregiver at a nursing home since moving to Salisbury in 2020. \u201cWhen I go out to the street, I\u2019m in fear.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The United States initially gave TPS to Haitians following a devastating earthquake in 2010 and extended it several times since. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The Trump administration pushed to end that status, saying conditions in Haiti improved. Yet almost 1.5 million people <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/haiti-un-gangs-waltz-us-violence-42aea8944080f4ab6c80b06734d0bf0f\">have been \u202fdisplaced<\/a> \u202fbecause of gang violence, and most Haitians need humanitarian aid. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cWhat this administration is doing hurts me so much because it\u2019s inhumane,\u201d said Leila Borrero Krouse, an immigration specialist with CATA, a nonprofit supporting Eastern Shore farmworkers. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cIn all of these years that I\u2019ve been working with immigrants, I\u2019ve never met a criminal, a rapist, an abuser,\u201d she said. \u201cMost come to take jobs that others don\u2019t want. And it\u2019s heartbreaking to see how they\u2019re suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The immigration crackdown has upended the life of Patricia Grace Louis-Jacques, a nursing student at Salisbury University who has family members and friends affected by the end of TPS. Last week, her best friend asked her to take care of her infant child if she got detained.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cFrom that moment, I knew things got bad,\u201d Louis-Jacques said at a nearly empty Caribbean Creole Caf\u00e9 under a painting of Toussaint L\u2019Ouverture, a leader of the Haitian Revolution. \u201cTheir lives have tremendously changed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Not far from the church, near a Perdue Farms poultry plant, a Honduran woman spoke from the home which she has rarely left for a year since the Trump administration ended TPS <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/immigration-border-trump-honduras-nicaragua-0b45ae86356631f2afee2dd9bbed7a3e\">for nearly 80,000 Hondurans and Nicaraguans<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">She said she worked at Perdue Farms for more than two decades, repetitively cutting chickens with scissors on a fast-paced line, before losing her job last year after her TPS expired.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Her 25-year-old son, who was born in the U.S., worries that she will be detained. He often calls, reminding her to keep her living room curtains closed and avoid answering the door. Sometimes, she said, she hides by locking herself in a bathroom, where she keeps a Bible. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">On weekends, she used to attend church and volunteer for events advocating for the rights of immigrants. These days, she only takes out her two dogs to the yard and then returns indoors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cIt\u2019s terrible to live in this anxiety,\u201d she said. \u201cIt isn\u2019t fair to those of us who came to this country not to cause harm, but to try to have a better life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">___<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Associated Press writer Gisela Salomon in Miami contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">___<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP\u2019s <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/ap-twir\">collaboration<\/a> with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SALISBURY, Md. &#8212; These are harrowing days for the Word of Life Center, a church that for many years has been a vibrant hub of the Haitian community in Maryland\u2019s Eastern Shore region. A bridal shower and yard-sale barbeque were canceled. So were English-language classes. The senior pastor of the nondenominational congregation in Salisbury, Roosevelt&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28857,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.abcnewsfe.com\/a\/ff6a84db-378c-4854-b2db-559f96baa976\/wirestory_0ea22879cd0ea864242d67041abb3664_16x9.jpg?w=1600","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}