SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — With a looming deadline, Haitian migrants living in San Diego under humanitarian programs are facing an uncertain future, fearing deportation back to the unstable conditions they fled.
The Department of Homeland Security announced last week that it will revoke the legal status of more than 500,000 migrants, including Haitians and Venezuelans, within 30 days, citing abuse of the humanitarian parole program.
"I have stress, anxiety, fear," said 46-year-old William, a Haitian native who arrived in the U.S. two years ago fleeing gang violence. "I have slept very little."
William, a former street vendor, said gang members with guns killed his brother and mother-in-law back home. "I prefer to die than go back to Haiti, because I will definitely be killed if I go back," he said.
Another Haitian refugee, 69-year-old Marie, came to the U.S. with her grown children after gang members threatened her son when he ran for office in Haiti. "Returning is not an option. I leave it in God's hands," she said.
Pastor Johnny Oxeda of the First Baptist Haitian Church in City Heights said between the humanitarian parole program and the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haiti, there are around 6,000 local Haitians, with 4,000 in the parole program.
Both William and Marie say they have applied for asylum and TPS, a separate program the Trump administration announced it will end in August. They now wait anxiously to see if their applications will be approved before the 30-day deadline.
"Anxiety, people are afraid," Oxeda said of his congregants facing the impending loss of legal status. His Sunday services has dwindled from 700 to between 300 and 400.
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