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Last week, the Trump administration revoked the temporary legal status of more than 500,000 Haitians, Cubans and Nicaraguans welcomed into the United States during the Biden administration.
The Department of Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem filed a notice in the Federal Register that read: “DHS is terminating the CHNV parole programs as of March 25, 2025. The temporary parole period of aliens in the United States under the CHNV parole programs and whose parole has not already expired by April 24, 2025, will terminate on that date unless the Secretary makes an individual determination to the contrary. Parolees without a lawful basis to remain in the United States following this termination.”
The order applies to migrants and refugees from those countries who have been in the U.S. for two years or less. It also implies these individuals now face deportation or must self-deport within 30 days. The exact number of Haitians in Chicago affected by this order isn’t clear, but it likely includes a significant portion of recent arrivals under the CHNV program.
The Haitian population in Chicago is estimated to be around 4,746 individuals. However, some advocates have estimated that the broader metropolitan area might include 10,000–22,000 Haitians, with undocumented residents potentially raising the number to 30,000–35,000.
“We are spreading the word to people and ensuring that our families are safe,” a Haitian immigrant in Chicago said to the Crusader, asking for their name to go unpublished for fear of retribution. “There are several humanitarian and legal efforts in place, but we do fear ICE agents will deport people who’ve been living in this city for years.
“We are taking precautions,” the activist said.
In anticipation of the move by federal officials, Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR) filed a federal lawsuit on March 3rd to block the termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian and Venezuelan immigrants. It is the first case in the country to challenge the rollback of TPS protections for Haiti, and it was brought to the federal district court in Boston, home to one of the largest Haitian populations in the country.
“TPS is a critical lifeline for immigrants who have fled extreme violence, political upheaval, and natural disasters in their home countries,” Mirian Albert, Senior Attorney at Lawyers for Civil Rights, one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs, said in a statement sent to the Crusader. “The decision to undermine TPS for Haiti and Venezuela is driven by racial bias and has no basis in the realities these communities face. The Constitution prohibits government actions based on racial animus,” she added, citing comments that Trump has made, including that Venezuelan immigrants are “animals” and that Haitian immigrants “all have AIDS.”
TPS for Haiti was granted in 2010 after a catastrophic earthquake and has since been renewed several times. Protections for Haiti were set to expire on February 3, 2026, and for Venezuela on October 2, 2026, but this Administration is attempting to speed those expiration dates to August 3, 2025, and April 2, 2025, respectively. “But the TPS statute does not allow any president to revoke an extension that has already been granted,” the legal group noted.
In September of last year, the Haitian community gathered for a “Stop the Haitian Hate” rally at Federal Plaza downtown to denounce attacks on Haitian immigrants in Ohio who were falsely accused of eating pets as part of the anti-migrant propaganda campaign.
Chicago was founded by Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable in 1779 after establishing the first trading post at the mouth of what is now known as the Chicago River. The name is derived from “shikaakwa,” an Algonquin language among Indigenous people in Illinois which means “smelly onion” or “wild garlic,” for the abundance of a native plant in the region.
The son of a Haitian father and an African-born slave mother, DuSable was summoned by the British to represent their trading interests with the Indians in Detroit. In 1784, Du Sable returned to Chicago, creating several buildings and infrastructure that steadily flourished into a major trading center.
The City of Chicago, which has been a safe haven for immigrants and refugees fleeing economic and political persecution, did not recognize DuSable as its founding father until 2006.
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, who is of Haitian heritage, has emerged as a national leader in filing legal challenges to Trump administration policies that seek to withhold funds from so-called “sanctuary states” and municipalities, as well as federal cuts that would put Americans at risk.
Speaking March 4th on “Chicago Tonight” about the crackdown on immigration,” Raoul said, “We’ve (Illinois) actually been sued by the Department of Justice, along with the city of Chicago and the County of Cook, with regards to our Trust Act, and the city and the county with regards to their sanctuary city ordinances. We filed a motion to dismiss today, and basically, the same advice that we give to law enforcement is that local and state law enforcement offices cannot be commandeered by the federal government to do immigration work. We’ve been sued on this before — the 2nd Circuit has ruled on it before that the federal government cannot commandeer local governments to do the federal government’s work.”
The Way Forward Act, which became law in Illinois in August 2021, amended two existing state laws to add additional requirements and protections for immigrant communities: the Illinois TRUST Act and the Voices of Immigrant Communities Empowering Survivors (“VOICES”) Act. The TRUST Act generally prohibits local law enforcement in Illinois from participating in immigration enforcement.
Shortly after taking the oath of office on January 20, President Trump issued Executive Order 14165, “Securing Our Borders,” establishing a policy of the United States to “take all appropriate action to secure the borders of our Nation through a range of means, including deterring and preventing the entry of illegal aliens into the United States, and removing promptly all aliens who enter or remain in violation of Federal law.”
Section 7 of the Order directed the Secretary of Homeland Security to take all appropriate action to “[t]erminate all categorical parole programs that are contrary to the policies of the United States established in [the President’s] Executive Orders, including the program known as the `Processes for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans.’ ”
Black Lives Matters Grassroots (BLMG) said “war has been declared” on citizens throughout the country and noted, “…anti-immigrant policies harm our continental African, Haitian, Caribbean, Afro-Latinx, Arab, and other Black migrant siblings, who have been targeted by ICE raids in places like Florida and Ohio. In the ultimate act of hypocrisy, the Indigenous people of this land have been racially profiled by ICE and held unlawfully on suspicion of being Latin,” the organization said in a press release.
“Our communities must unite to resist this fascist, white-supremacist agenda. We must continue educating one another about our rights – because we do have rights. Being undocumented is not a crime…settler colonialism is,” BLMG said.