By Liana Gonzalez  

Flatbush Central Market is a mainstay of Brooklyn’s Little Haiti. Beneath its roof are colorful stalls filled with fresh produce, Caribbean spices and handmade goods. The vendors cheerfully converse amongst themselves, but few customers browse the stands. 

Since February, when the Trump administration announced its plan to withdraw Temporary Protection Status (TPS) for Haitian immigrants, the market’s atmosphere has darkened. Business owners and residents say fear and uncertainty are rising as they face the prospect of being returned to a country fraught with political turmoil and violence.  

“There’s a portion of people who work with me, and whether it’s our cleaners or cooks, they felt a sense of footing, and now for them to be in limbo, there is genuine fear,” said Nadege Fleurimond, a community activist and founder of Young Culinary Masters. She is also the owner of BunNan, a restaurant that offers Haitian cuisine located in the market. “It’s not like they have a place they can go back to and know everything is well there.”

Haiti faces several crises — political, humanitarian and security — according to human rights groups. The country has been under a state of emergency since March 2024 due to a spike in gang violence, including killings and kidnappings.  Haiti also is experiencing a renewed outbreak of cholera, according to the World Health Organization. And nearly 2 million people face emergency levels of hunger, according to a Human Rights Watch report. Hundreds of thousands of Haitians have fled their homes, the UN’s refugee agency reported.

Maryjo Montrose, director of Flatbush Central Market, said Haitian epicenters like Little Haiti in New York City, which has the second-largest Haitian population in the nation, are ordinarily bustling but now have become quieter.  

“If you are used to the neighborhood, and you are looking between Parkside Avenue down to Junction, you will see the number of people has decreased significantly,” Montrose said. “They are not on the street, so our vendors feel it. They lost their customer base.”  

Thousands of Haitians in New York City face uncertainty after the Trump administration announced it would move forward with terminating TPS. The order decreases the amount of time Haitian and Venezuelan TPS holders are permitted to stay in the U.S., putting them at risk of deportation as soon as August 2025. This week, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to end TPS for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans. 

According to a March press release from New York State Attorney General Letitia James, approximately 56,800 TPS holders reside in New York, of which more than 5,400 are Haitian TPS holders in New York City.

“At a moment when the Haitian community needs our support the most, we cannot turn our backs,” said Prof. Margarita Rosa of CUNY’s Baruch College, an expert in Caribbean studies. “The U.S cannot deport individuals fleeing life-threatening situations under international law.” 

James said that Haitian families will be harmed if revisions to the program are not postponed. She said these changes may force parents to return to their country of origin without their children, or stay in the United States living in fear because they cannot work legally, or compel entire families to go to a dangerous country.  

Fleurimond said developments in Haiti add to the anxiety felt by local Haitian workers.

“I know someone who is in total fear and trauma because his working papers expire next month, and they think that as soon as they expire, it’s going to be like, ‘go back home.’ What does that mean?” she said.  

Montrose also emphasized the emotional and economic impact of the uncertainty.  

“I believe the thought was that there would maybe be an exception, and that the administration would extend it for maybe another two years. People don’t have a place to go back to,” she stated.  

In response, the community is organizing. The Haitian Times reported that on March 14, community members and elected leaders gathered in Brooklyn’s Little Haiti to rally in support of Haitians with TPS.  

The Haitian community has endured great hardships since the first immigration period in the 1960s, after Francois Duvalier’s violent dictatorship drove Haitians to seek refuge in America. While Cubans and other groups were offered a path to citizenship, Haitians were detained and deported.  

Fleurimond said she believed Haitian immigrants in New York would find strength in the resilience the community has built over the years. 

“We’ve endured, ensuring that we became the first Black republic and secured our freedom from being enslaved people,” Fleuromond said. “We will overcome as we always have. It is just sad that we always have to overcome.”