INDIANAPOLIS — Weedberline Cetoute owns a flower shop in Indianapolis and studied business at Ivy Tech Community College, but her father is the main breadwinner for the family.
He’s a team leader at an Indianapolis warehouse, and his income pays the bills and mortgage on their home where the family all lives together, shared Ceoute, 27, who moved to the U.S. in 2023.
“We are very hard workers,” she said. “We know how to provide for our families.”
But Ceoute’s family faces an uncertain future. That’s because they are all Haitian immigrants, and on Monday, her father will no longer have legal status and the ability to work.
The U.S Supreme Court ruled last month that President Donald Trump could end Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, for around 350,000 Haitian and Syrian nationals. The program started in 1990 to allow people living in countries experiencing armed conflict, natural disasters or other extraordinary conditions to live and work in the U.S.
The end of the program means around 7,000 Haitians on Monday will be immediately removed from Indiana’s workforce, according to FWD.us, an immigration and criminal justice policy organization. Around 11,000 Haitian TPS holders in total live in the state — one of the largest populations in the nation.
Ceoute’s father was a legal resident through the program and has lived in the country for about 10 years. He first went to Florida after leaving Haiti, but decided to move to Indianapolis for better job opportunities, Ceoute said, whose legal status won’t be impacted by the court ruling.
Her father works in a warehouse for a national company with other Haitians, she said. Many of them will lose their jobs on Friday and could face deportation back to Haiti if they can’t gain legal protections through other immigration programs.
Ceoute requested her father’s name and place of employment be withheld due to safety concerns.
“This is taking a toll on us because we really are not sure what the next day or the next week or the next month even will look like for us,” Ceoute said.
Companies face ‘disruptions’
The loss of thousands of Haitian workers will ripple across the state’s economy, said Vanessa Green Sinders, president and CEO of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce.
The state’s Haitian TPS workforce annually contributes $209 million to the economy and pays $55 million in federal, state and local taxes, according to FWD.us.
“When changes affect the legal work status of people already contributing in the workplace, businesses can face real disruptions at a time when many are still working to fill critical positions,” Sinders said.
In Indiana, around 3,000 Haitians with TPS work as stockers and packers, and another 1,000 are delivery drivers, according to FWD.us.
Long-term healthcare facilities that have long struggled to fill positions could also be hit particularly hard. Roughly 20% of Haitian TPS holders work in healthcare, according to a July 7 letter sent to the Department of Homeland Security by the Florida Health Care Association.
“The loss of even a small percentage of these experienced caregivers would be detrimental to residents’ continuity of care as well as providers who are already struggling to fill essential positions,” the letter reads.
The association asked DHS to use any “available administrative authority” to provide exceptions for Haitians with TPS to continue working as caregivers without “abrupt interruption to their employment.” The agency had not provided an exemption as of Thursday.
Cetoute said it’s Haitians losing their legal status who will suffer most from the new policy. But she knows others will be impacted, too, including those needing long-term care and the facilities that employ them.
“These companies are also suffering from what’s going on with this TPS issue,” she said. “It’s not just my dad.”
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FPI News reporter Carson Gerber covers healthcare, manufacturing, agriculture, immigration … and just about any other topic that’s shaping how we live in Indiana today. Reach him at 765-204-4250 or carson.gerber@fpinews.org.
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