Days after the Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to end Temporary Protected Status for Haiti and Syria, a coalition of Queens elected officials and community leaders packed Queens Borough Hall to demand that Congress step in and extend it. The June 29 rally in Kew Gardens was first reported by QNS.
TPS is the immigration status that lets people from countries hit by disaster, war, or collapse live and work legally in the U.S. without fear of deportation. It does not lead to citizenship, and it does not qualify holders for most federally funded benefits. Applicants have to pass criminal background checks to get it. Haiti was designated in 2010 after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake, and the protection was renewed again and again, until the Trump administration moved to terminate it in November 2025.
Then the courts got out of the way. On June 25, in a 6-3 decision in Mullin v. Doe, the Supreme Court ruled that federal law generally bars judges from reviewing the homeland security secretary’s decision to end a TPS designation, according to SCOTUSblog. Justice Elena Kagan, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented, writing that the Haitian and Syrian beneficiaries were asking “for only one thing: that they may stay in this country while they continue to litigate their claims.”
There are roughly 40,000 Haitian TPS recipients across the state, and 5,400 of them live in New York City, per QNS. Queens has the second-largest Haitian population of the five boroughs, behind Brooklyn. Losing TPS means losing work permits and facing deportation to a country the rally speakers described as gripped by gang violence and political collapse.
“This Saturday marks the 250th anniversary since we declared independence from a king who ruled like a tyrant,” Borough President Donovan Richards said, tying the rally to the July 4 weekend. “But there will be no fireworks for our Haitian and Syrian brothers and sisters this weekend – just fear that comes with being accepted one day and being told you’re illegal the next.”
Speakers leaned hard on the economic argument. The American Immigration Council estimates TPS holders paid more than $2.2 billion in taxes in 2021, over $1 billion of it to state and local governments. Forward U.S. puts the annual economic activity of Haitian TPS holders at more than $5.9 billion. In New York, they fill thousands of jobs in healthcare and hospitality, industries that speakers said would take a direct hit if deportations ramp up.
“These people have been here for decades and decades and decades,” said Elsie Saint Louis, CEO of Haitian Americans United for Progress. “They are homeowners, doctors, nurses, lawyers, teachers, cab drivers and health aides.”
Assemblymember Clyde Vanel, the son of Haitian immigrants, said his siblings all went into law, education, and medicine. “That story is not unique to us – that’s the immigrant story,” he said. “Many of the Haitians that we represent are more than contributing to New York State and New York City. They work in our schools, our hospitals and our homes. They are paying millions in taxes to the city and the state.”
Attorney General Letitia James described conditions on the ground in Haiti. “We’ve got to tell the story about the reality of what’s happening in Haiti,” James said. “The government has been destabilized, there are gangs all throughout Haiti… It will result in death and harm to our neighbors, friends and family members.”
Saint Louis pushed back on the word “temporary” itself, arguing the crisis in Haiti is not one Haitians created alone. “We also expected that crisis to be temporary,” she said.
James said she and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer are pushing to extend the status. Schumer introduced Senate bill S.4814 on June 17, which would extend TPS through January 20, 2029. James told the crowd the work has to go past showing up to rallies, urging attendees to call members of Congress and help flip the House in November’s midterms. “What we have to do is contact all of those Congress members and senators in states all across this country,” she said, naming Maryland, Ohio, California, and Florida alongside New York.
Much of the event was practical. James told TPS recipients to consult credible legal institutions, secure their documents, and set up guardianship for their children in case of separation. Saint Louis advised holders to protect their assets, carry cash, and link bank accounts to a service like Western Union so a trusted person could send money if they were deported. “We need to protect one another,” Saint Louis said. “I don’t care if you don’t like this government or don’t like us. We need help more than ever. We need our friends.”
Salamata Diallo, a community liaison with the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, said MOIA runs a free and confidential legal support hotline that connects people to a trusted legal assistant across the five boroughs at 1 (800) 354-0365. The office also works with the Haitian Response Initiative, a partnership between MOIA, seven Haitian-serving community organizations, and Catholic Charities that provides immigration legal services, case management, and support to Haitian New Yorkers in their own language. Richards created the Immigrant Welcome Center at Queens Borough Hall in 2021, which handles legal service referrals and connects immigrants to city resources.
“When they come for one of us, they come for all of us,” Richards said. “Make no mistake – there is no Donovan Richards, no Queens and no America without the generations of Haitians who embody the American dream. That is a dream that will never die in the world’s borough.”
Featured image: Photo by Ramy Mahmoud
