NEW YORK, July 17, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - The 500,000-strong Haitian community in the United States is in a state of panic as the Trump administration pushes to deport those who fled here after a huge 2010 earthquake.

"I came here seeking refuge, and now they want to kick me out," said Clarens, who obtained temporary protected status (TPS) following the quake that leveled much of his Caribbean island home.

"I believed in the American dream, and I thought I could bring the rest of my family here. I thought we would be able to thrive in the United States."

In Miami and New York, where the Haitian diaspora is largest, fear of being returned to the destitute, violent, largely lawless and gang-ridden island is widespread.

"It's total panic, the whole community is suffering because even if your temporary status has not yet been revoked, ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents are on the streets and can arrest anyone," said Clarens, which is not his real name.

After cancelling an extension of the protective status granted to 520,000 of Clarens's countrymen to February 2026, Trump definitively cancelled it in June.

While a New York court has blocked Trump's move, Haitian-American immigration lawyer Stephanie Delia warned the reprieve will likely be short-lived.

"If it ends February 3, which sadly we expect that it will, you're talking about (people) who for 15 years have relied on something and have built their life on," she said.

In Brooklyn's "Little Haiti" neighborhood, many in the diaspora are too afraid to go to church, work, or even the doctor for fear of being arrested by ICE agents.

- 'Slaughterhouse' -

"The number of TPS people, so mostly Haitians and people from Latin America, has dropped sharply at the clinic. From 300 to 30 a day. People are afraid," said the head of a clinic in the neighborhood who requested anonymity.

Guerline Jozef, director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, said she was aware of many people afraid to go outdoors, including one woman in "complete distress."

"She had to flee Haiti 20 years ago, and was able to get that protection in 2010. Now her fear is what is going to happen -- primarily with her children," Jozef said.

Haitian activist Pascale Solages warned that without legal status, "people will no longer be able to work, pay their rent, and will end up on the street."

Faced with the choice of being arrested and removed, or "self-deporting", some migrants are fleeing to Canada.

"We are receiving many inquiries and calls. We are seeing 10 to 15 people per day," said Marjorie VilleFranche, director of Maison d'Haiti, a support organization in Montreal, home to a large Haitian community.

Under an agreement on safe third countries, Haitians in the United States can apply for asylum in Canada if they have family there.

Others can cross the land border and request asylum within two weeks.

Canada's Border Services Agency said more than 8,000 asylum seekers crossed at the Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle crossing between Quebec and New York State in the first six months -- up from 4,613 in the same period in 2024.

Most of those were Haitian.

Clarens said he could not imagine travelling to Canada without his family and waiting years for an asylum ruling.

The prospect of returning home is even more daunting.

Haiti is plagued by gang violence with more than 3,000 people killed in the first six months of 2025, the UN says. The gangs control most of the capital city, Port-au-Prince. Haiti is run by a weak, non-elected transitional government and has not held an election of any kind since 2016.

"Gangs control everything -- they have informants monitoring those who enter and leave the country. In their minds, if you live in the United States, you must have money," Clarens said.

"We'd be kidnap targets. Sending us back there is like sending us to our deaths, to the slaughterhouse."