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Across Springfield that evening, anxiety was mounting. Haitians and their American supporters were awaiting a federal court ruling, expected by midnight Feb. 2, about the fate of Temporary Protected Status, or T.P.S., for Haiti, the program that has allowed beneficiaries to live and work legally in the United States.
The Trump administration had moved to terminate the status effective Feb. 3. Without court intervention, thousands of Haitians in Springfield would have become deportable overnight, and federal agents could descend on the city the very next day.
And even after the court blocked the termination, that prospect remains.
The government has asked an appeals court to overrule that lower court decision, and in a lawsuit about Syrians, the government asked the Supreme Court last week to take emergency action that could give the administration far more power to limit or end T.P.S. across the board.
More than 10,000 Haitians now call Springfield, a city of 58,000 between Dayton and Columbus, home. While some are U.S. citizens, most have T.P.S., and in the months ahead of the court ruling, many Americans had mobilized to help the growing Haitian community.
In churches and community centers, they organized prayer services, marches and petition drives. Volunteers ran practice drills. Others agreed to serve as legal guardians for children whose Haitian parents feared they could be detained.
Some did something more risky: They discreetly converted spare bedrooms and finished basements into places of refuge.
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The small, secret network that began sheltering Haitian families echoes an earlier chapter in the city’s history.
Springfield was once a stop on the Underground Railroad, the network of abolitionists who helped enslaved people flee to free states or to Canada. U.S. Route 68 passes near the former home of George and Sarah Gammon, who had themselves been enslaved and whose house, now a museum, was a way station for those fleeing bondage.
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Federal law makes it a crime to “conceal, harbor, or shield from detection” an unauthorized immigrant. The offense is a felony that can carry up to five years in prison. In the past, prosecutions have targeted smugglers, and sometimes employers, but not ordinary citizens.
Houses of worship have a long tradition of offering sanctuary to undocumented immigrants. Their status as religious institutions has typically afforded them protection from immigration enforcement. And some congregations have pledged to continue providing refuge even after the Trump administration last year lifted restrictions on enforcement actions in churches and other “sensitive” locations, such as schools and hospitals.
Organizing by ordinary people to shelter immigrants in private homes represents an emerging, invisible front of resistance.
These are not seasoned activists. They are neighbors, like Jean.
A woman in her 40s with no political or religious affiliations, Jean said she had felt compelled to step up after an unsettling incident at work. An immigrant employee at the company, which is not in Springfield, was detained by immigration agents. Jean began thinking about the Haitian families in her own community.
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Once hosts were cleared, it came down to practical considerations. Do you have a bedroom with actual beds? Is the space suitable for children?
For security reasons, there was no spreadsheet or cloud-based list. Jean kept the names and contact information of approved hosts handwritten in a small red booklet, its cover engraved with a gold bird perched on a stack of books.
The potential legal jeopardy she might face was not lost on her.
“Almost everything is in a gray area,” Jean said. “This needs to be happening, even if there are risks.”
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All told, about two dozen immigrant families found sanctuary through the network, according to Jean. Some other Haitian families managed to find refuge that night with American friends outside the network, Marie said.
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The post Inside the Underground Safe Houses Sheltering Immigrants From ICE appeared first on American Renaissance.
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