ELIZABETH, N.J. — On a Sunday in March, the Rev. Canon Andy Moore looked out at the empty back-left pews at St. Elizabeth’s Episcopal Church, which had once been filled with Haitian immigrants. “We pray in a very special way for our Haitians who aren’t here at this service, stricken by fear,” he said, before breaking the Communion wafers.
Only a few months earlier, his Haitian parishioners were reviving the aging St. Elizabeth’s, whose choir had gone dormant. Nearly a dozen Haitians led the church in worship on Christmas Eve, singing “Mèsi Bondye”—thanking God in Haitian Creole. St. Elizabeth’s had helped many of them find housing, learn English and secure jobs in the U.S.
That morning, though, Haitian parishioners had good reason to stay home: Word had spread that immigration enforcement agents were gathering outside a nearby Wendy’s — two blocks from St. Elizabeth’s.
Last November, the Trump administration announced it sought to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians, and fears of arrest among Haitian immigrants soared in New Jersey and across the country, as mass deportation efforts were underway. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case challenging the revocation of TPS in April and is set to rule on the fate of some 330,000 affected Haitians by late June.
At Voice of the Gospel Tabernacle, in Boston’s Mattapan neighborhood, …