kathleen kerch a lawyer working for "advocates for basic legal equality" an ngo operating in springfield, ohio that provides free legal services to the haitian migrants has been vocal in the community for the last 3 years. > many of the haitian immigrants in springfield qualify for tps status and often theyve applied for asylum as well, said kathleen kersh, senior attorney at advocates for basic legal equality, who has been assisting haitians in springfield.   and from the same article from june of 2023 it states that haitians were already making up nearly a quarter of the cities gibs applications and that was in mid 2023, the haitian population has doubled since then > haitians represented 15% of total applicants approved for public assistance and 20% of applicants disapproved in august, martycz said, and 48% of haitian applicants were not approved for benefits. katie kerch also has created the "welcome to dayton plan" which was adopted by dayton, ohio.
United States