New York Attorney General Letitia James is urging a federal appeals court to block an effort to end Temporary Protected Status for more than 350,000 Haitian immigrants.
James co-led a coalition of 17 other attorneys general in filing an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The brief supports a lawsuit challenging the Department of Homeland Security’s attempt to terminate TPS for Haitians.
“Every day, Haitian immigrants contribute immensely to New York, from working in our schools and hospitals to running successful small businesses,” James said. “This administration’s continued efforts to strip away the legal status of hundreds of thousands of Haitians will put families in danger and tear apart our communities. I will keep fighting to protect immigrants’ rights and ensure Haitians with TPS can continue living, working, and raising their families safely in this country.”
TPS allows immigrants from certain countries facing unsafe conditions to live and work legally in the United States. Nearly one in four TPS holders nationwide is Haitian.
James and the coalition argue that ending TPS for Haitians would destabilize families across the country. In 2022, about 87,000 U.S. citizen children and 116,000 U.S. citizen adults lived with a Haitian TPS holder.
According to the brief, TPS-holder parents could face an impossible choice: leave their children behind and return to Haiti alone, take their families to what the coalition describes as a dangerous and unfamiliar country, or remain in the U.S. without legal status and risk deportation.
The attorneys general also argue that terminating TPS would hurt state economies and public health systems. At least 56,000 New Yorkers hold Haitian TPS status.
Those individuals pay more than $140 million each year in state and local taxes and contribute over $800 million to New York’s economy, according to the attorney general’s office.
The coalition says ending work authorization for Haitian TPS holders would also strip many families of employer-sponsored health insurance. Without legal status, the brief argues, immigrants and their loved ones may avoid seeking care at hospitals and clinics, especially as federal immigration enforcement increases.
The states are asking the appeals court to reject the federal government’s request to pause a lower court decision that currently prevents DHS from terminating TPS for Haitians while the case continues.
Joining New York in filing the brief are the attorneys general of California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai‘i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia.
James has filed several similar briefs over the past year defending TPS for immigrants from Haiti and other countries, including Venezuela, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Nepal.
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