Outrage after US Supreme Court allows end of TPS for Haitians
The 6-3 ruling clears the way to strip protected status from about 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians, prompting condemnation from lawmakers and advocates.
NEW YORK, United States. Legislators and immigration advocates on Thursday, June 25, expressed outrage at the US Supreme Court’s ruling allowing the Trump administration to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians and Syrians living in the United States.
The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) said the decision allows the administration to strip TPS from nearly 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians, exposing many to deportation “amid Haiti’s extreme humanitarian, political, and economic crises.”
The court divided
In the 6-3 majority decision, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr wrote: “This text is clear, and its plain meaning is very broad.” He rejected claims that the decision was driven by anti-Black and anti-Haitian bias, saying statements by the president and his administration were not “overtly racial.”
Writing for the three dissenting justices, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said: “The statements fairly shout, in their racial undertones and overtones alike, that race entered into the president’s resolve to remove Haitians from this country.”
Lawmakers respond
“Again and again, this MAGA-corrupted Supreme Court has proven there are no lengths it will not go to disgrace itself in fealty and service of Donald Trump,” Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants and chair of the CBC, told Caribbean Life.
The CBC urged the Senate to take up companion legislation led by Senators Edward Markey and Lisa Blunt Rochester to extend TPS for Haiti, after the House passed a bill through a discharge petition led by Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called the ruling “cruel and inhumane.” House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said the court had “recklessly rubber-stamped” the administration’s plan.
New York reaction
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the decision would fall “hardest on our Haitian community, one of the largest in the country.” He told TPS holders: “New York City is your home. You belong here.”
Assembly member Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, the daughter of Haitian immigrants, joined the mayor, Governor Kathy Hochul, Attorney General Letitia James and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, the son of Grenadian immigrants, at a rally in lower Manhattan.
“This court did not find that Haiti or Syria is safe,” Ms Bichotte Hermelyn said. “To our vibrant Haitian community and all TPS holders in my district: you are not alone, and this fight is far from over.”
Unions 32BJ SEIU and 1199 SEIU also condemned the ruling, with 32BJ saying more than 98,000 New Yorkers hold TPS. Aline Gue of Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees called the decision “profoundly cruel”, and Guerline Jozef of the Haitian Bridge Alliance said: “That fight moves forward.”
