Although her customers are mostly Haitians who may soon lose their jobs and be deported, restaurant owner Ketlie Moise maintains an air of entrepreneurial optimism.
Moise runs a Haitian Creole restaurant in Springfield, Ohio, called Keket Bon Gout, which occupies space in a strip mall so vacant that its parking lot has grass sticking out of the asphalt cracks.
He is about to launch another business, and open a pub called The Lantern in a nearby area.
“The Haitian community here, we come here to work hard,” Moise told CBC News as he oversaw renovations to the bar.
Moise is one of the Haitians who make up about a quarter of Springfield’s 58,000 people, as you can find anywhere in the country.
For this city, the recent decision of the US Supreme Court is very difficult. Last month, the Supreme Court upheld US President Donald Trump’s decision to revoke the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) that allows more than 300,000 Haitians to live and work in the country.
The decision of the Supreme Court is expected to come into effect next Monday. Meanwhile, the employment authorization for Haitians on TPS will expire this Friday, according to an order from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services.
These upcoming deadlines have many Haitians across the US fearing that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents could soon begin targeting them for arrest.
Trump made the Haitians of Springfield famous
Haitians in Springfield are feeling extremely vulnerable because of the bad name they faced when Trump made the baseless claim during the 2024 presidential debate that they eat dogs and cats.
Moise says some Haitians are considering leaving Springfield to stay with friends or family who have legal immigration status in the US, while others are considering leaving the country for places like “Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Canada.”
He intends to stay, as he has a pending asylum application, which is on paper giving him the ability to stay in the US, at least for now.
The common mood among Springfield’s Haitian community is fear, said Carl Ruby, senior pastor of Central Christian Church and founder of two local immigrant advocacy groups.
“What I hear from a lot of people is that their plan is to go into the house, lock the door and try to wait it out,” Ruby told CBC News.
“I think many of them are still hoping that something will happen that will allow them to stay. I don’t think that will happen, but it’s a wait and see situation now.”
Dismissal will also hurt the economy
Ruby says the arrival of Haitians in the 2010s brought a new vibrancy to Springfield, a Rust Belt town that was struggling economically and declining in population from the 1920s.
Haitians were employed in manual jobs that many Americans did not want, including manufacturing, food processing and long-term care.
“When the Haitians came, it was the first time Springfield had grown in half a century,” Ruby said. “New businesses are coming here, existing businesses are expanding.”
Forcing thousands of Springfield Haitians to leave the US now will hurt them and the local economy, Ruby said.
“I am saddened by what this means to the people of Haiti who have become my dear friends and members of my church, but I am also saddened by our city,” he said. “It’s just a huge loss, and it was totally unnecessary.”
Trump and his administration believe that the removal of Haitians from the US is unnecessary.
‘Don’t go to Haiti’
The US first granted Haitians temporary protection status after the 2010 earthquake that devastated their country. Successive administrations expanded protections, as Haiti was plagued by gang violence.
“Do not travel to Haiti due to the risk of crime, kidnapping, terrorism, unrest, and limited health care,” says the US State Department warning, which has been in effect since 2020.
The Trump administration announced its intention last November to end TPS for Haitians, saying conditions in Haiti no longer allow for protection (despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary). Legal challenges ultimately stalled the termination until last month’s Supreme Court ruling that sided with the White House.
Geoff Pipoly, a Chicago-based attorney who led a court challenge against ending TPS for Haitians, says the administration’s move contradicts its claim that it is focused on deporting foreign criminals.
The Haitians in TPS “are working, they all have jobs, they keep their noses clean, from crime,” Pipoly said in an interview with Zoom. “There’s a reason business people in Springfield and elsewhere want them there.”
CBC’s Paul Hunter joined UN Secretary-General António Guterres as he visited Haiti’s dangerous, gang-ridden capital, Port-au-Prince, where a new UN-backed force is trying to end the violence and restore peace. | CORRECTION (June 18, 2026): An earlier version of this video and description called the operation by UN forces. In fact, it is a multinational effort supported by the United Nations.
Viles Dorsainvil, executive director of the Haitian Support Center in Springfield, is in the US under TPS but also has an asylum claim pending.
Despite uncertainty about her future, she spends her workdays helping other Haitians navigate the US government — from driver’s licenses to school enrollment to the immigration process — and working as one of the community’s spokespeople.
“I’m not going to let fear stop me from doing this, even though I’m in the same boat as them,” Dorsainvil told CBC News. “We may be afraid, but we must conquer our fear for a higher purpose.”
Some are considering trying to enter Canada
He describes the situation in the community as “fear and anxiety, and hopelessness, too.” He says he has heard of other Haitians who have been laid off when their employers knew their work permits would soon expire.
Some have told him they will try to enter Canada, but he warns them of the risk of being sent back to the border and handed over to American authorities.
“As a community leader, I make sure that I tell people that it’s time to act wisely and try to stay calm, because taking quick decisions sometimes puts you in great danger,” said Dorsainvil.
There is plenty of evidence in Springfield that the Haitian community is concerned.
There is the polite but firm refusal of a Haitian grocery store clerk to answer any questions from a visiting reporter.
There is work being done by the foundation and the local government to find and screen Americans who are willing to care for Haitian children temporarily if their parents are imprisoned or deported.
And there is a steady stream of Haitians seeking help from the volunteers of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, a Catholic charity, in applying for passports for their children born in the US.
As the TPS termination date approaches, Casey Rollins, executive director of volunteers at St. Vincent de Paul in Springfield, has seen what he describes as violence within the Haitian community.
“Even though they know this has been happening for a while, the truth is getting worse every day,” said Rollins.
He cannot understand the decision to end TPS, given the danger the deportees would face in Haiti, where gangs have gained control of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and are expanding their attacks elsewhere in the country, according to the United Nations.
Rollins recounts what he heard from a young Haitian, married with children, who is still a friend.
“‘I would love, love, love love, to be in my home [in Haiti]but I can’t,'” Rollins told the man. “‘I’m not going to live.’
He had taken notes during their conversation, and read them from his phone.
“‘In Haiti,’ he said, ‘the minute they know you’re back here from the USA, you’re dead.’
A similar concern concerns Benjamin Louis, another Haitian in Springfield. He once worked as an accountant for the Haitian government’s finance ministry and says he was twice targeted for kidnapping before seeking asylum in the US.
What worries him most now is what is happening in the country where he wanted to be protected.
“Fear is strong in our society right now,” Louis told CBC News.
“Nobody feels safe here in America as an immigrant, because you don’t know the next step [U.S. authorities] they will take.”
