{"id":2119,"date":"2026-07-28T21:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T21:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/topmovingpross.com\/?p=2119"},"modified":"2026-07-28T21:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T21:08:10","slug":"loss-of-work-authorization-sows-confusion-for-thousands-of-haitian-immigrants-and-their-us-employers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/topmovingpross.com\/?p=2119","title":{"rendered":"Loss of work authorization sows confusion for thousands of Haitian immigrants and their US employers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) \u2014 For more than a month, Bobby Kuchinsky arrived at his restaurant each morning worried about whether he still had enough staff or if this might be the last shift for some of his Haitian<\/span> workers, who have spent over a decade as cooks, busboys and oyster shuckers.<\/p>\n

Read more Keiko Fujimori inaugurated as Peru\u2019s president following narrow election victory<\/a><\/p>\n

On Tuesday, he suspended six of them after they lost authorization to work in the U.S.<\/p>\n

Kuchinsky and thousands of other businesses owners and managers<\/span> are living in a state of constant uncertainty because confusion clouds the status of work permits for Haitian employees with Temporary Protected Status, better known as TPS.<\/p>\n

As part of its crackdown on legal and illegal immigration<\/span>, the Trump administration terminated TPS for about 1 million<\/span> people from more than a dozen countries, including 350,000 Haitians who have been living and working legally in the U.S. since 2010. The termination, which exposed them to deportation, was challenged in district courts. On June 25, the Supreme Court<\/span> sided with the government, allowing the TPS program to end<\/span>.<\/p>\n

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The cases went back to the lower courts<\/span>, which generally take 32 days to announce their decisions following the high court\u2019s recommendations. In the meantime, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, extended the Haitians\u2019 work permits. The agency usually acted on the same day that the permits expired and offered extensions of only a few days, creating confusion and desperation among employers and the Haitian community. <\/p>\n

Work permits were not extended <\/h2>\n

Then on Monday, the work permits were not extended, and fear mounted \u2014 not only due to the loss of jobs but also because of the potential for arrest and deportation to one of the poorest and most violent countries in the Western Hemisphere.<\/p>\n

Almost 1.5 million people have been displaced<\/span> because of gang violence in Haiti, where more than half of the country\u2019s nearly 12 million inhabitants need humanitarian aid. More than 2,300 people have been killed and more than 1,100 injured since January, according to the United Nations.<\/p>\n

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Citizenship and Immigration Services did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press requesting clarification on the validity of work permits.<\/p>\n

In a written statement to AP, the Department of Homeland Security said TPS was created to be a temporary program, and the agency encouraged Haitians to request a $2,600 check to buy a \u201cfree flight home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s closing time, which means you don\u2019t have to go home, but you can\u2019t stay here,\u201d the DHS statement said.<\/p>\n

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Restaurant manager suspended TPS employees<\/h2>\n

As he did every morning, Kuchinsky, general manager of the Half Shell Raw Bar in Key West, logged onto the government website Tuesday to verify the work permits of six Haitian employees who were TPS beneficiaries. This time he learned their permits were no longer valid.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told them they are suspended,\u201d he said after meeting with his employees. \u201cIt was horrible. It wasn\u2019t fun … they had fear in their face, tears in their eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

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