One Struggle, One Strategy: Haiti, TPS, and Our Way Forward

“Faith cannot be neutral when families are put at risk,” said Bishop Dwayne Royster, Executive Director of Faith in Action.

On Tuesday, February 2, Bishop Dwayne Royster stood with faith leaders from across the country in a packed church in Springfield, Ohio, in solidarity with 15,000 Haitian migrants who came to the city to work, educate their children, and send money home to support their families in Haiti. They helped revitalize Springfield. Yet today, many are living in fear of detention and deportation, as ICE threatens large-scale enforcement actions in this city of 60,000—echoing recent raids in places like Minneapolis. News coverage here.

Tell Congress to protect Haitian families — Extend TPS

Meanwhile, in Terrier Rouge, a rural community in northeastern Haiti where Faith in Action International’s affiliate OPODHA is based, conditions are increasingly difficult. Families are arriving, fleeing gang violence in Port-au-Prince or being deported from the U.S., seeking safety, housing, and work. Haiti has been without a functioning government or elections for eight years, deepening instability and hardship.

What connects Springfield, Ohio, to Terrier Rouge, Haiti?

Faith in Action International’s advocacy for Haitian Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in the U.S. and OPODHA’s grassroots organizing in Haiti are not parallel efforts. They are part of a single, shared theory of change: to build strong grassroots organizing in Haiti, strengthen the voice of the Haitian diaspora, and advocate for changes in U.S. development and foreign policy that support Haitian-led solutions.

Our Way Forward in Haiti is grounded in a core truth: forced migration from Haiti is not accidental. It is the result of decades of political exclusion, economic extraction, climate vulnerability, and international policies that weaken—rather than strengthen—community power. Any meaningful response must therefore be transnational, linking protection for Haitians abroad with sustained investment in grassroots leadership within Haiti.

OPODHA’s work on the ground embodies this vision. Through popular education, leadership development, and community organizing, OPODHA supports grassroots leaders fighting for access to water, food sovereignty, dignified livelihoods, and democratic participation. In communities too often treated only as sites of crisis, OPODHA helps build organized power—so people can shape their own futures rather than be displaced from them.

At the February 2 prayer service and rally in Springfield, Faith in Action leaders, Haitian community members, and faith allies put this analysis into action. They publicly demanded an extension of TPS and an end to deportations to Haiti. The Springfield action underscored the moral clarity at the heart of our work: protecting Haitian families in the U.S. is inseparable from the struggle for justice and stability in Haiti.

Both efforts insist that Haitian lives are not temporary, disposable, or negotiable. Both affirm that real solutions come from organized people—whether in U.S. cities or rural Haitian communities—claiming their dignity and their right to belong.

Faith in Action International will continue to walk this path forward with Haitian leaders on both sides of the border, organizing for policies that protect life today while building the conditions for a just and democratic Haiti tomorrow.

Your support is needed now.  While the U.S. District Court in Washington, DC granted a stay, postponing the termination of TPS for Haitians, permanent action is required by Congress to legislate an extension of TPS.

Tell Congress to protect Haitian families — Extend TPS