The American Dream Comes With An Expiration Date

By Sophia Cardona

With two kids under the age of nine, going back to Haiti wasn’t a risk he was willing to take.

Kidnappings and mass killings are daily events back home. Last year, the United Nations reported that between April 2025 and June 2025, “armed violence in Haiti killed 1,520 people and injured 609 more.”

Ulrich Bosquet was born and raised in Port-au-Prince. He moved to the United States in 2016, a decision he made to protect his family from the everyday violence that consumes the lives of thousands in the Caribbean country. 

For over 10 years, little by little, he built a new life in Florida, one that felt relatively safe and allowed him to provide for his family. But all of a sudden, things took a turn. 

“For me, my biggest fear, the thing that kept me awake at night was, I am the sole breadwinner of my wife and kids, and when you are Haitian, you’re also the sole breadwinner of your extended family, like your brother, your sister, your cousin,” he said. 

That feeling of safety was disrupted soon after President Donald Trump launched his 2024 presidential campaign. 

“I think I lost my confidence when I saw the way he was preparing to become a president,” Bosquet said. “This is when I’m like: ‘OK, I need to find an alternative because they just started attacking the whole immigration system.’”

Now over 350,000 Haitian immigrants on Temporary Protected Status (TPS), as well as 150,000 Haitian immigrants pending a TPS decision, face the same uncertainty. Thousands will be left helpless as the process has been put on pause. 

On Nov. 26, 2025, the day before Thanksgiving, the Trump administration revoked TPS for Haiti, a designated special permit of residency for immigrants from countries undergoing dangerous conditions. The protection was set to expire on Feb. 3, until District Judge Ana C. Reyes blocked its termination. However, the Trump administration appealed the decision, which is now headed to the U.S. Supreme Court in the case Trump v. Miot.

“The amount of fear that people have is just heartbreaking… and the problem is that on one hand I can’t say: ‘No, you shouldn’t be afraid,’ because the fear is warranted, but on the other hand if we give into the fear, we will lose,” Haitian Bridge Alliance Attorney Charlotte Wiener said. 

The Haitian Bridge Alliance is one of the organizations that have filed lawsuits against the termination of TPS. For over 10 years, the organization has supported Haitians and other black migrants and refugees with legal, social and humanitarian assistance.

In 2024, during a presidential debate, Trump made the baseless claim: “[Haitians] are eating the dogs… they are eating the cats.” The statement launched a target on the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio and across the entire country. 

“Once I knew he was the president back in November [2024]… I’m like: ‘That’s it, that’s going to be his first thing.’ For some reason, the election was around the Haitians, so I knew we were going to be the target as soon as he became president,” Bosquet said. 

As a TPS holder, when he heard the news of the termination, a wave of worry came over him about what his future and that of his family would look like. The life he worked so hard for over a decade was suddenly pushed to the edge. 

“That was one of my biggest fears, because I don’t think I could have lived with the idea of my kids being lost in the system,” he said. “I’ve seen the tension — the fear — in some of my friends and people that I know.” 

Immigrants under TPS from Venezuela, Honduras, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Nepal and Syria, among other countries, have also been left scrambling to find a future elsewhere.

Haiti was granted TPS in 2010 after the most catastrophic earthquake to hit the country left millions displaced. Later in 2021, Haiti’s President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated, leaving Port-au-Prince in the hands of gang members. 

“Gangs control about 90% of Port-au-Prince, and because now they control most of the capital, they’ve expanded to the countryside, where they are terrorizing and brutally killing people,” Wiener said. “All the people from the capital who fled and who are now in towns — these towns and cities do not have the capacity to be able to take care of all these newcomers who have been displaced and who are in a situation fleeing gang violence, fleeing kidnappings — kidnappings are rampant right now.” 

For years, the protection has been extended as conditions in the country have continued to worsen. 

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), as of June 2025, over 1.3 million Haitians were internally displaced; gang violence being the main issue forcing them out of their homes. 

Humanitarian issues such as malnutrition and the environmental crisis, including weather-related disasters that the country has not been able to pick itself up from, have created a critical environment for Haitians. Wiener believes the termination of TPS would only exacerbate the already vulnerable situation. 

Despite all of this, in June 2025, DHS published a press release that reads: “The environmental situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home.” Yet, the U.S. Department of State continues to classify Haiti’s travel advisory as Level 4 — a classification given to places of extreme danger. 

“That’s not true, they will just take whatever decision they want just to get rid of the people that they don’t like, so it’s just political. It’s just hate. There’s no legal reason that Haiti has become better. That’s not true,” Bosquet said. 

Though the administration maintains that Haiti is safe enough for return, Bosquet and Wiener know the harsh reality that takes place in the country. 

“There are certain things in Haiti… you’re just going somewhere and you see a murder — you would think that’s normal. You see someone get kidnapped — you would think that’s normal. But coming to the U.S., this is when I realized: ‘Oh, it’s not normal, it’s a crime.’ It’s like, a kid is not supposed to see that,” Bosquet said. 

TPS was Bosquet’s only guaranteed protection as his asylum case has been on a pending status for over 10 years. The protection allowed him to pursue his education and career. During his time in the U.S., he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees and worked for some of the biggest companies in the country. 

“I realized: ‘Hey, I need to forget that I’m an asylee. I need to live my life like I would have done my best,’” he said. “Because I was waiting, I couldn’t do anything. I said: ‘Hey, let me live.’”

For quite some time, the American Dream seemed to be panning out, although not perfectly. 

His arrival to the U.S. coincided with Trump’s arrival to the White House. At the time, he was nervous about what it could mean for the Haitian community, as Trump also threatened the termination of TPS for Haitians during his first term. But nothing could have prepared him for the drastic policies upon his return.

With the recent threat, Bosquet had to go back to the drawing board and sort out new options. 

“I realized the only way for me to not care about certain things is to take action instead of waiting for something to happen to me, instead of waiting for ICE to come, instead of waiting for my work authorization to be canceled… getting a lawyer ready in case something happened,” he said. 

The fear of deportation and being separated from his family interrupted his sleep. His mental health took a hit as anxious thoughts flooded his mind constantly.  

“We were sleeping on maybe three to four hours a night. Our health was really bad. I was pre-diabetic — intense like that,” he said. 

The waiting became overwhelming, which is why he researched every possible option — anything that could keep him and his family away from potential danger. 

“I think we researched Germany, Sweden, we also looked at Haiti: ‘Can we go back?’ We did the pros and cons. We talked to people there, and people are like: ‘No, it’s not safe here.’ I didn’t want to risk it, so that was not an option,” Bosquet said. “Finally, I think the only option was Canada.” 

Canada has become an increasingly trending destination for Haitians, as the Canadian immigration system favors French-speaking applicants due to its efforts to preserve the Francophone community. 

After exploring countless options, Bosquet was able to meet all the requirements and head north.

While many come up with exit plans, some simply have nowhere else to go and no one to turn to. The agony of a nearing uncertain future intensifies by the day.

“All of the Haitian Americans who were born in the U.S.,  if their parents lose TPS, their parents have a dreadful decision to make, which is they can one: either leave their child in the U.S. with someone, that is if they have someone, or if they don’t, with social services, so that their child can remain in the U.S., even if that means separation and putting both in the position of extreme anxiety over the parents’ fate in Haiti. Or two: they can bring the child back to Haiti with them and then both face the risk of losing their lives in Haiti,” Wiener said. 

According to the United Nations, “Haiti is facing one of the world’s most acute humanitarian crises, driven by escalating gang violence, political paralysis, and deep economic distress.” The return of thousands of Haitians to the country would lead to chaos, as tensions are at an all-time high. 

The current administration’s immigration crackdown has left many in a permanent state of worry. The constitutional rights they once thought to be protected by have been progressively dismantled. According to the Associated Press, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo from January of this year states that a judicial warrant is no longer required to allow ICE agents’ entrance into somebody’s home. 

The Trump administration’s mission of capturing “the worst of the worst” has also taken a different turn. According to FactCheck.org, “In January, nearly 43% of those detained had no convictions or charges, according to publicly available ICE data.”

To fight the termination of TPS, different efforts are taking place, such as a discharge petition sponsored by Massachusetts Representative Ayanna Pressley that calls for the extension of the protection for Haitians. On March 27, the petition met the number of votes required to move forward and force a House vote on the extension of TPS. 

“Today [March 27] we are a critical step closer to saving lives and delivering the protections they deserve. The House must vote on this and I urge all of my colleagues to strongly support,” Congresswoman Pressley said in a press release. 

For U.S. immigration attorneys, the immigration crackdown has become overwhelming and the TPS battle has added even more weight on the situation. With countless detention and deportation cases, there is only so many that they can take on. 

“It’s not so reassuring for folks when we tell them that we’re going to fight for their rights in court, because there are so many people these days who have been deported before we are even able to get their cases heard in front of the judge,” she said. 

Haitian immigrants are not the only ones who will be impacted by the final decision. The U.S. healthcare system, which depends heavily on the Haitian community, will also face the impact. 

An analysis by the Migration Policy Institute published in 2023 revealed that 103,000 Haitian immigrants held health-care positions as of 2021.

“Especially for nursing, we already have a shortage, so now removing these people, it just makes it worse,” Amina Dubuisson, past president of the Haitian American Nurses Association, told NBC 6. 

A fact sheet published earlier this year by the Haitian Bridge Alliance, FWD.us and UndocuBlack Network shows that Haitian TPS holders “contribute an estimated $5.9 billion to the U.S. economy each year, and annually pay $805 million in federal and payroll taxes and $755 million in state and local taxes.”

“These people are our neighbors. These people are our nurses. These people are our doctors. These people are members of our community that have been contributing,” Wiener said. 

As a product of Haitian immigrants, Wiener knows the important role Haitians play in the United States. These people are not “the worst of the worst” the Trump administration claims to be after. 

“I mean, my father is Haitian. He fled Papa Doc’s murderous regime in Haiti and sought refuge in the U.S. where he worked as an engineer. He made sure that I was well educated and at the same time he transmitted to me the pride of being from peoples who overthrew Napoleon’s army to create the first Black Republic; and now, here I am helping my community as a lawyer,” she said. 

This is not an immigration crackdown; Wiener and Bosquet believe it is a racial one.

“What’s just heartbreaking to me is that… all along the migration journeys of our people, wherever they go, they’re not wanted,” Wiener said. “And I think that can definitely be traced to the racism. It’s a shame that white nationalism is given the green light right now.”  

According to the Migration Policy Institute, the vast majority of detainees and deportees are from Latin American countries. 

“You know, that tells you it’s a matter of skin color. It’s not a matter of those people coming here illegally… we only hear about communities of black and brown people, that’s it,” Bosquet said. 

The American Dream might have closed its doors to Bosquet and his family, but he is grateful for the life he built in the U.S. He now lives in Canada with his wife and two kids — a place he now calls home. Though life there is no longer filled with fear, Bosquet still has family living in the U.S. who remain uncertain about their future. 

“Those people are going to be in limbo because like I said, some of them have never been to Haiti for the past 15 years… their kids don’t speak Kreyòl. A lot of things are going to change for them. The worst thing about the situation is even the kids would not understand what’s going on around them,” Bosquet said.  

Sometime after making the move to Canada, Bosquet’s eldest son came to him with a tough question to answer to any child: “Why did we have to leave?”  

“I tell him, ‘Hey, mommy and daddy were in that situation, and we feared for our life, and we feared for you, and to make sure that we don’t live constantly in that fear anymore,’” Bosquet said to his nine-year-old.

On March 6, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled against the termination of TPS for Haitians, allowing them to continue working in the country legally and be protected from deportation — for now. 

But on March 11, the Trump administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court to end the protection, leading the fate of thousands into an unclear and unsettling path. 

A vote on the protection will make its way to the House later this month, following Pressley’s discharged petition, and the Supreme Court is expected to deliver a final decision on the case late June or early July.