This summer, more than half a million people lost their legal status to live and work in the US, specifically Haitian and Latin immigrants who arrived during the final years of the Biden administration.

The number is not known, but many settled in Kentucky, finding jobs, safety, and community.

Our June Lefler is back, and she met with one man fighting to stay in Louisville and with naturalized citizens who see our immigration system in very different lights.

In 2023, when Lee Moise fled Haiti for Louisville.

I love my country.

But the situation.

The reason why that I left was because I was in danger.

Armed gangs control much of the country, killing and kidnaping people.

They actively recruit children, something Moise tried to prevent when he lived there.

His lawyer says he was working at the program.

Sakala taking providing on alternative paths for young people to stay out of gangs.

And because of that, he was targeted by those gangs.

And he has seen things that no human should see.

Now, in Louisville, Moise is without his family.

But he says they know he is safe.

They are, you know, they're scared and they're in danger every day.

And me out of Haiti is, you know, decreasing the weight on their, you know, heart like, thinking that something can happen to me.

He came to the U.S. under humanitarian parole, something former President Joe Biden granted to folks from Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

Parole offers a legal right to stay and work temporarily for the people that entered on the parole program.

There was always a question of what's next?

Parolees were granted two years to stay, but that was cut short when President Donald Trump ended the program in March.

The U.S. Supreme Court greenlit that move in June, and, the notice in the Federal Register said, if you don't already have an application for relief pending, you are a priority for removal.

That news created panic, sending many parolees into hiding, and you could be picked up by ice any time and your family not knowing exactly where you are, and then what is going to happen out of a church basement?

Two Haitian born U.S. citizens in Louisville run the route.

A grassroots effort to help other Haitians, especially the newcomers.

One of the first lubrication of ending the bubble gum is, the loss of a employment status.

Now, with people losing their employment status, now they cannot work and no job meaning no money not providing for the family, not paying the bills.

They describe this change as a stab in the back.

These people received a promise from the U.S. government.

And then all of a sudden, to end their state is just like that.

Rendering them illegal.

And I think that kind of, I think reduce to some way the credibility of the U.S. government.

It feels like, we're cattle able to be moved whenever, being displaced.

Whatever.

But not all immigrants are upset with Trump's hardline approach.

I'm defend my community, but I defend the control.

Immigration.

The illegal immigration denies that dairy and Barrios works at this adult daycare for Spanish speakers, and he also.

Movil is home to one of the fastest growing Cuban communities in the country.

And most Cuban-Americans who showed up to the polls in 2024 voted for Trump by post.

Believes Trump is targeting fraud in the immigration system.

In the airport, when they came in their offices, they said, who is your your sponsor?

And they say, I don't know.

So many people, committing fraud with, with, or without Congress acting.

The president makes the immigration rules.

What was legal under Biden simply isn't any more under Trump.

As for Moise, he and his lawyer are pursuing another legal Avenue asylum.

I love this place.

You know, that's the first place that I came when I came to the U.S., and I fell in love with it.

And I think I will stay in Louisville until, you know, until what will come.

If their case is successful, it could lead to a green card, something temporary parole could never guarantee.

For Kentucky edition, I'm June Leffler.