SUNNY ISLES BEACH, Fla. — Through tears, Sunny Isles Beach Holocaust survivor Anna Fischbein told The Associated Press how much she will miss the Haitian health aide who worked with her every week for the past 10 years.

“She doesn’t deserve this,” Fischbein, 87, said. “She is so giving.”

Fischbein said she lost more than someone who worked for her.

“I lost, not a lady working for me, I lost a friend,” she said. “I don’t know if this is enough to describe why I did not sleep all night today.”

Miriam Singer, the CEO of Jewish Community Services of South Florida, said the agency had to terminate Fischbein’s aide and 17 others when their work permits expired after the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the path for the Trump administration to end Temporary Protected Status for Haitian nationals.

“So here is another level of trauma for a group of individuals that have already experienced horrific trauma in their lives and horrific loss,” Singer said. “Here is another separation from the person that they trust to care for them.”

Singer said two areas of work at Jewish Community Services included team members who were Haitian nationals with TPS, including home care services, “mostly serving Holocaust survivors and some other seniors.”

Also stripped from Haitians who were in the U.S. on TPS: deportation protections.

Attorney Lourna Rosembert-Joseph said immigration authorities can now enforce the fact that people no longer have protection.

“So let’s say ICE has a raid and they are looking for individuals, can they deport anyone that they arrest? Yes,” Rosembert-Joseph said. “Can they arrest you? They can. Because technically you don’t have a status inside the United States as of now.”

Leonie Hermantin, director of special projects at Sant La Haitian Neighborhood Center, said conditions have not improved in Haiti.

“Temporary is attached to the country condition,” Hermantin said. “But it is clear that in the past 10 years we have seen that, particularly in the case of Haiti, things have gotten worse — gang violence — making it unsafe to return.”

She added, “To say that it is temporary, fine, if the situation ends. But in the case of Haiti, it had not ended.”

Fearing their safety if deported to gang-riddled Haiti, some TPS Haiti advocates have told Local 10 News that families are considering a move to Canada.

The Canada Border Services Agency told World News that, as of July 26, the most asylum claimants being processed at land border ports of entry this year are from Haiti, followed by the United States.

Julia Sande, an Amnesty International Canada lawyer who specializes in refugee and migrant rights, said anyone considering a move to Canada should know there are legal mechanisms that can make that move difficult.

“Under the Safe Third Country Agreement between Canada and the U.S., unless you qualify for one of the limited exceptions — for example, you’re an unaccompanied minor or you have a close family member in Canada — Canada says that the United States is a safe third country and will send you back to the United States and tell you to make your claim there,” Sande said.

She added, “They won’t consider your refugee claim in Canada. So the only way, really, to get around the agreement, unless you qualify for one of those limited exceptions, is to cross in between a port of entry and make a claim for refugee protection after 14 days.”

But she said that still leaves Haitian asylum seekers in a difficult position.

“The problem is that for Haitian asylum seekers, if you’ve crossed in that way — or if anyone crosses in that way — their claim is deemed ineligible to be referred to the Refugee Protection Division, the administrative body that hears claims in Canada,” Sande said. “So while Canada won’t send you back to the States, your claim becomes ineligible.

“But Haiti is on the list of countries that Canada does not deport to, and so, while that’s a good thing, you would not be facing deportation to Haiti.”

Sande said people can become stuck in “legal limbo” with no real pathway to regularize their status, which can make it “difficult to reunite with family.”

“They’re outside of the Safe Third Country Agreement if they have a close family member in Canada,” she said. “They won’t be sent back to the United States. But Canada is not going to hear their claim and because they’re not actively facing deportation, they don’t have that final sort of avenue to regularize their status.”

Sande said Amnesty International is currently challenging the Safe Third Country Agreement in Canadian court.

She said Canada’s Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that the constitutionality of the agreement depended on the existence of “safety valves” being available at the border for people who could face a “real risk of unfair detention if they’re sent back to the United States.”

“Canada has failed to make any sort of safety valve available at the border, and so we launched our newest challenge to the Safe Third Country Agreement,” Sande said.

Sande said Amnesty International’s position has been that the agreement is unconstitutional and that Canada should withdraw from it.

“Given the Trump administration’s dismantling of the asylum system, the mass detention and deportation agenda, it’s abundantly clear that the United States is not safe for asylum seekers, and that Canada cannot be relying on the United States to discharge its legal obligations,” Sande said.

According to Canada’s Border Services Agency, the CBSA “gives serious consideration to the conditions in destination countries of removal.” If existing conditions could “endanger the lives or safety” of a person, an Administrative Deferral of Removal is imposed.

It is a temporary measure in Canada to prevent individuals from being deported to a country facing a humanitarian crisis. According to the Canadian government’s website, an Administrative Deferral of Removal is in place for certain regions and countries, including Haiti and Venezuela.