More than 330,000 Haitian immigrants in the US are set to lose their ability to legally live and work as the Trump administration moves to end their temporary protected status (TPS). Among them are an estimated 13,000 nursing assistants who care for 65,000 patients daily.
Workers fear for their safety and families
“I get up at 5am every morning and I take two buses to work to clean the rooms of the residents. I give my heart,” said a nursing home housekeeper with TPS from Haiti, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation. “I want to stay here in New York where I can be safe and care for my residents. I cannot return to Haiti. It is not safe. I’m afraid that I would be killed if I return.”
Donald Trump’s officials hold a different view. The US Supreme Court ruled 6 to 3 in favor of the administration’s efforts to terminate TPS for Haitians and Syrians in June.
Community and industry impact
“The impact is not just for the TPS recipients, but our whole communities,” said Roxana Rivera, assistant to the president at Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 32BJ. “We do think this is a racist act from the administration targeting immigrants.”
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has argued that TPS holders should leave the US and seek other legal statuses, despite no direct pathway from TPS to a green card. Asylum grant rates under the Trump administration have dropped below 5%.
The US State Department currently advises against travel to Haiti due to a national state of emergency. TPS was first designated for Haitians in 2010.
“The vast displacement of folks that have been law-abiding citizens being abruptly pulled and uprooted, basically losing employment, not being able to work, but also facing deportation and detention to home countries that are unsafe, is of a huge impact for our members and their workplaces,” Rivera added. “In the service sector, they can’t operate without immigrant workers.”
Families face separation
Pierre Etienne, a US citizen based in New York with family members and friends under TPS, criticized the decision. “I have family members and close friends who are protected under TPS. They left Haiti because their lives were in danger. Armed gangs took over their neighborhoods, forcing them to flee and leaving them without their homes and everything they had built,” said Etienne. “Knowing that my loved ones could be placed in harm’s way causes me tremendous fear, stress and anxiety.”
A third Haitian immigrant, based in New York, who has lived in the US since 2000 and requested anonymity, described how the termination of his TPS has upended his life. “The loss of TPS and my work authorization has turned my family’s life upside down. I am married, and I am the father of two daughters who were born in the United States.”
He said he did everything right: registering, background checks, paying fees and renewals. Now he faces losing his work authorization while bills remain. “I’m not asking for special treatment. I’m asking for a fair opportunity to continue supporting my family and contributing to the country that has been my home since 2000. It also creates the constant fear that I could be separated from my family and sent to a country that I left more than 25 years ago.”
Administration defends decision
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson claimed conditions in Haiti have improved enough to support the return of Haitians, despite the ongoing US travel advisory and United Nations warnings of continued violence. “Temporary Protected Status is exactly that – temporary. For too long, TPS has been allowed to function as a de facto amnesty program despite Congress never intending it to be permanent.”
A White House spokesperson added that TPS “was never intended to be a pathway to permanent status or legal residency.”
The second Haitian worker also criticized hateful rhetoric toward immigrants, including Trump’s false 2024 claim that Haitians were eating pets in Springfield, Ohio. “Haitians should not be judged by stereotypes or used as political targets. When political leaders make degrading or misleading statements about an entire community, those statements have real consequences. They create fear, discrimination, workplace hostility, bullying of Haitian children and sometimes even threats of violence.”
