Haiti TPS: Many Haitians want asylum. Most won’t get it. | Local

Some Haitian people who live in the Springfield area say they are seeking asylum because they believe it’s their best bet to lawfully remain in America after Haiti’s temporary protected status is cancelled by the Trump administration.

But the odds are not in their favor. So far in fiscal year 2026, 88% of asylum decisions involving Haitian applicants have been denials, according to data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.

Only 220 Haitian nationals who lived across the entire United States were granted asylum in fiscal year 2023, says the most recently published data from the Office of Homeland Security Statistics. In Ohio, only 370 foreign-born people of all nationalities who lived in the state were granted asylum that year, says OHSS data.

For reference, around 10,000 to 15,000 Haitian people reside in the Springfield area and there are more than 330,000 Haitian TPS holders across the entire country. The U.S. Supreme Court late last month issued a ruling that gives the Trump administration the go ahead to strip legal protections from Haitian TPS beneficiaries, as well from TPS holders from other countries.

“Many Haitians in Springfield and Ohio have already applied for asylum. I think only a few of them will likely win those cases, not because they do not have a genuine fear of return to Haiti, but because the asylum system has been eroded so much by this administration that it is almost impossible to win,” said Kathleen Kersh, managing attorney with Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, which provides legal services to immigrants.

A tough process

This newspaper interviewed many Haitians who live in the Springfield area who said they have applied for asylum or plan to because they hope they can lawfully remain in the United States, ideally permanently. Haitian nationals have been protected from detention and removal by the TPS program. But the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Trump administration to allow the federal government to revoke Haiti’s TPS as litigation challenging the termination proceeds in a federal district court.

While the TPS program provides no path to citizenship, asylum recipients after one year can apply for a green card to obtain lawful permanent residence.

Asylum typically is harder to get than TPS, and the application process is more complex, says the Immigrant Legal Resource Center.

TPS approvals are based on country conditions. Asylum-seekers have to show that they individually faced persecution or they credibly fear persecution if they return to their home countries.

Foreign-born people may be eligible for asylum if they have been persecuted or they fear persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, political views or membership in certain groups.

Applicants’ nationalities usually matter in asylum cases, and success rates vary by country of origin, said Ariel Ruiz Soto, a senior policy analyst with the Migration Policy Institute.

The United States has recognized that some countries have widespread political or religious oppression, human rights abuses or torture. Asylum-seekers generally need third-party corroboration and evidence to back up their claims of persecution, such as documentation of threats, mistreatment or politically-motivated arrests. Some countries are in a better position than others to provide this kind of information.

The U.S. State Department says gangs are the primary source of instability and violence in Haiti.

Unfortunately for Haitian immigrants, gang persecution is not one of the protected grounds for an asylum claim, Ruiz Soto, said.

“It is going to be difficult” for Haitians to obtain asylum, he said. “The majority of them likely will not qualify, or at least, they are going to struggle to present evidence that they should qualify.”

Because the Trump administration cancelled Haiti’s TPS, Haitian TPS holders who want asylum now likely will have to file defensive asylum claims, Ruiz Soto said.

Kersh, with ABLE, said the hardest part of the asylum application process is explaining and proving why applicants fear they will be harmed in their home countries, based on the qualifying criteria.

She noted that the application process can be challenging. For instance, she said, applicants must complete a nine-page application in English that must include a large amount of biographical and historical information, such as the names, addresses and attendance dates of every school they were enrolled in.

The asylum process often involves detailed personal declarations, interviews and hearings.

Many apply, many denied

In FY 2023, Haitian nationals filed 30,030 affirmative asylum cases, says the most recent data from OHSS. Overall, OHSS said there more than 456,000 affirmative asylum applications filed in fiscal year 2023 alone, plus another 488,620 defensive asylum cases.

Defensive asylum cases involve people in removal proceedings in immigration court. In affirmative asylum cases, the applicants, who are not in removal proceedings, seek legal protections from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The United States granted asylum protection to about 54,000 foreign-born people in fiscal year 2023, after awarding asylum to about 36,600 people in FY 2022 and 16,625 people in FY 2021, OHSS data show. This was before Trump was elected to a second term in office. Trump has made restricting immigration a focus of his administration, and he has vowed to deport Haitian TPS holders.

About 320 people of Haitian nationality who lived in America were granted asylum in FY 2023, and 310 Haitian nationals won asylum in FY 2022, says OHSS. In FY 2023, about 370 people of all nationalities who lived in Ohio were granted asylum.

The Dayton Daily News analyzed TRAC data about asylum denial rates for nationalities that have had at least 100 asylum decisions during FY 2026. Haitian applicants were denied asylum or other forms or relief in 88% of decisions.

Of the roughly 50 nationalities with at least 100 asylum decisions, only 15 other countries had higher denial rates than Haiti.

Last month, Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy, told the media that most asylum-seekers are coming from countries where they do not face the kinds of persecution that would make them eligible to receive this type of relief.

“America’s doors are closed fully to asylum-seekers,” he said. “If you want asylum, then we will find a country elsewhere in the world to take you.”

Asylum decisions

The average asylum case in immigration court takes about four years to complete, says the Migration Policy Institute. That’s one of the reasons that about 2.3 million immigrants who have filed formal asylum applications are now waiting asylum hearings or decisions in immigration court, according to TRAC data.

Individuals with a pending asylum application with USCIS or immigration court may be protected from deportation, but the government may be able to seek detention, says the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project.

The government is ending some cases in immigration court early and detaining and deporting asylum-seekers before they receive a full hearing, ASAP said. ASAP also noted that applying for asylum requires immigrants to provide information that the government may not already have and applying informs the government that a person is present in the United States. The government may not have been aware of this.

The federal government in early 2026 stopped processing USCIS applications for immigrants from 40 countries, including Haiti, ASAP said. A court in early June ordered that the pause was illegal and told USCIS to start processing applications again, but the government appealed the ruling and it’s not exactly clear what could happen next.