Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, Attorney General Andrea Campbell, and immigration rights advocates condemned the Supreme Court's decision Thursday to allow the Trump administration to remove the legal status of Haitians and Syrians living in the U.S.
“This decision makes no sense,” Healey said. “This Trump policy makes no sense for our families, our economy, our communities, our country. It allows President Trump to rip away protections from families and children, children who fled, devastating earthquakes and violence in their own countries.”
Campbell said this Supreme Court decision will be brought down to the lower courts, but a decision leading to a different outcome could take weeks or months.
Currently, this decision means Haitians and Syrians who have been granted permission to legally work, have housing, and healthcare in the U.S. under what's known as temporary protected status or TPS are at risk of being deported.
According to the state, Massachusetts is home to one of the nation’s largest Haitian populations, including tens of thousands of Haitian TPS holders. Massachusetts’s Department of Developmental Services alone employs dozens of Haitian TPS holders, who provide care to some of Massachusetts’s most vulnerable populations. 40% of the front-line staff in nursing homes are non-U.S. citizens with many of them being from Haiti.
Sarang Sekhavat, chief of staff at the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition said people with TPS who haven't already started applications for other protected statuses like asylum will face even more difficulties.
"This administration is putting up additional roadblocks in the way of creating procedural barriers for them or the fact that they're just not really processing applications timely. Like they've moved so many people out of application processing that it takes forever for anything to get done with the agencies now,” Sekhavat said.
Sekhavat said those who have TPS should consult an attorney to figure out the best options for them at this time.
