Haiti’s World Cup run ends with a Supreme Court ruling striking a blow to many fans

By Hira Humayun, CNN

Atlanta (CNN) — Haitian fans emerged in force in downtown Atlanta on Wednesday, donned in red and blue jerseys to watch the Caribbean nation’s last match of this year’s World Cup.

While Haiti didn’t win its match against Morocco, fans were jubilant about being able to cheer on their team, which defied the odds to play in its first World Cup stint since the ’70s.

But that joy was short-lived. The following day, the US Supreme Court gave President Donald Trump the green light to end the legal status for potentially millions of foreign nationals who hail from conflict-hit countries like Haiti and Syria.

The decision over what’s known as Temporary Protected Status (TPS) means more than 350,000 Haitians could lose their work authorizations and ability to remain in the country, unless they become eligible for some other form of protection.

Rights groups and experts have warned that Haiti –– a country where more than 2,300 people have been killed by gang attacks this year and 1.5 million more have been displaced –– is not safe for nationals to go back.

Fear about the impending ruling against TPS was palpable on Wednesday among Haitian fans. Outside Atlanta Stadium, Haitian citizen Jude Exama held a sign drawing attention to what’s happening in his home country.

“I’m not returning,” Exama said. “If tomorrow my country has security, I’ll return,” he told CNN while holding a sign calling for national dialogue to restore peace in Haiti.

Once a medical student in Port-au-Prince, Exama came to the US two years ago on humanitarian parole after an armed attack on his medical school and affiliated hospital, which has been shut ever since. He applied for TPS and asylum after entering the US and has been awaiting a decision while working in Georgia as a food delivery driver, sending money to his family in Haiti.

When Exama woke up to the news about the Supreme Court ruling on Thursday, he told CNN that leaving the US after his work permit expires isn’t an option.

“I myself have no choice but to stay in the country,” he told CNN on the phone. “How do you think I can go and live in a country like that… I would rather starve to death hiding from immigration than live in open hell in Haiti.”

‘Going back to Haiti will be fatal for us’

In New Jersey, Franndy Lesperance and his 10-year-old son celebrated Haiti’s World Cup journey from home.

“After 52 years out, it’s amazing to be back,” he told CNN, referring to how long it’s been since Haiti’s last World Cup qualification. But through the festivities, the fate of his pending TPS case weighed heavy on him.

He came to the US in 2023 on humanitarian parole with his son.

In order to apply for TPS, the applicant must be in the US. While his son was granted temporary deportation protections, Lesperance has a work permit that is set to expire next year. Lesperance had also applied for TPS but Thursday’s ruling has put an end to that pathway.

“I had in my mind they will not approve (TPS) because this administration doesn’t want foreigners in the country,” Lesperance told CNN on Thursday morning after learning of the Supreme Court decision. Despite having braced for this moment, he worries what it means for immigrants like him and his son.

“I don’t know what’s next,” he says, and is seeking consult from a lawyer.

Lesperance was a journalist and human rights activist when he lived in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, where he faced threats and escaped kidnapping attempts.

He now works as an operator at a manufacturing plant and sends money back to Haiti, where his ex-wife and six-year-old daughter remain in a provincial town. Their application for humanitarian parole was rejected in 2023, around the same time they had to flee the largely gang-controlled capital.

He and his son are scared at the thought of having to return and possibly not having a source of income for their entire family. “Going back to Haiti will be fatal for us,” Lesperance said.

A country ‘terrorized’

During a visit to the country this month, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the “crisis of extraordinary magnitude” he saw there was rooted in insecurity as gangs terrorized the country.

At a watch party at Lakou Fet, a Haitian cultural festival in Atlanta, Haiti fans echoed Guterres’ sentiment on Wednesday over plates of plantains and djon djon, a Haitian rice dish.

“The situation in Haiti – it’s unbearable right now,” Joslin Alberique, of Haitian descent said as he sipped a red and blue cocktail, matching the team colors. “If you’re not living in the outskirts, it’s kind of hard to just live a normal life,” he told CNN as fans danced to Caribbean music.

“They should be able to come here, they work hard,” said Natasha, a Haitian-American who declined to give her full name.

While most of her close family are US citizens, she still worries about her community at large. “If they lose TPS, you have a lot of people being displaced, going back to a country they haven’t gone to in years. Where are they going to go?” she told CNN.

In Los Angeles, Reginald Joseph has also been living under the shadow of the ruling on TPS for Haitians like him. He works two jobs –– a security guard and Uber driver –– to help support his family back in the Caribbean country, which is one of the most remittance-dependent in the world.

His hometown of Petite Riviere in Haiti’s main agricultural region, the Artibonite, has been ravaged by armed attacks. His house has since been destroyed, and his family has fled the area.

“I’m really worried because my whole family depends on me,” he told CNN. “I am the one taking care of my family.”

He’s been in the US since September 2023, sending money back to his mother, three sisters, and two young daughters – who he hasn’t seen since. They’re fully dependent on his income, with bleak employment prospects, especially after gang attacks destroyed the farmland they used to work on.

His children often ask him when he’ll come home – but all he can say is that he’s in America for them. His decision to come to the US and obtain TPS wasn’t an easy one – but it was a lifeline for his family.

Without his TPS status, his choices are next to none, he says. “If I were deported, things would be even worse,” Joseph said.

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