By Shazia Khan, NY 1

Hait­ian nation­als liv­ing in Brook­lyn and across the United States are fil­ing for tem­po­rary pro­tected sta­tus, after Pres­i­dent Barack Obama granted the immi­gra­tion sta­tus days after a mas­sive earth­quake rocked Haiti in Jan­u­ary. NY1’s Shazia Khan filed the fol­low­ing report.

Hait­ian immi­grant Ernest Admon has signed a form that could change his life. Admon has been liv­ing ille­gally in Brook­lyn since 1985, and if his appli­ca­tion for tem­po­rary pro­tected sta­tus is accepted, he may finally have a sense of belonging.

“It’s a plea­sure for me to have a TPS in my hand, because after 25 years in this coun­try, I never got a paper,” says Admon.

The TPS paper will grant Admon legal immi­grant sta­tus until next sum­mer, allow­ing him to work and travel on the books and qual­ify for Med­ic­aid. Pres­i­dent Barack Obama granted the spe­cial sta­tus to Haitians in response to the dev­as­tat­ing earth­quake on Jan­u­ary 12, but only to those who already were in the united states.

National esti­mates of eli­gi­ble Hait­ian immi­grants vary widely. Early on, offi­cials put it around 200,000, but now say it is around 100,000. Like Admon, a major­ity have delayed applying.

Offi­cials say they have only received 7,000 appli­ca­tions from Haitians liv­ing in New York City, which is home to more Haitians than any­where else in the country.

Wanda Rene, an attor­ney with the not-for-profit New York Legal Assis­tance Group, hosts free TPS help clin­ics at the Bed­ford Armory.

“I think that peo­ple are lit­tle bit hes­i­tant, mostly because they [think], ‘Immi­gra­tion doesn’t know where I am now, so if I do a
TPS appli­ca­tion, I’m kind of putting myself on the map and now they’ll know where I am. And what does that mean for me at the end of my TPS period?’” says Rene.

The Legal Aid Soci­ety has been pro­vid­ing free assis­tance with TPS appli­ca­tions at City Coun­cil­man Math­ieu Eugene’s Brook­lyn office.

The oppor­tu­nity to apply runs out in mid-July.

“The rea­son we are push­ing peo­ple to par­tic­i­pate in this pro­gram, it is bet­ter to have a cer­tain sta­tus in the United States than not hav­ing any­thing,” says Eugene.

As the July 20 dead­line draws near, there is a sen­ti­ment more Haitians will rush to file TPS.

As for Admon, he hopes his appli­ca­tion is approved, so he can finally visit his fam­ily in Haiti with­out wor­ry­ing about whether he can return to Brooklyn.

http://www.ny1.com/7-brooklyn-news-content/top_stories/117604/city-s-haitian-immigrants-file-for-tps