Leaders in local government, support service organizations and legal nonprofits shared their fury and shed tears at the State House Thursday following a Supreme Court decision that could jeopardize legal status for over 19,000 Haitians in Massachusetts.
The court ruled to allow the Trump administration to end temporary protected status for hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Haiti and Syria.
The state is reviewing what can be done as the decision sends the case back to lower courts, and what will happen in the meantime. For now, state leaders want immigrants with temporary protected status to know that the decision has not immediately taken effect. And they’re urging employers to not preemptively lay anyone off over their immigration status due to the ruling.
“I want to assure TPS holders workers and their families that this decision today does not go into effect today,” said Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell. “You remain protected today. The termination of TPS is expected to go into effect once the Supreme Court formally issues its judgment, which could happen in a matter of days or weeks. Usually it’s 32 days, but it can be more or less.”
The case will be brought back before the district court. She said it can take the courts weeks or months to make a decision.
“What’s worse about this TPS decision is that there will be no protections for TPS holders in the meantime,” said Campbell. She argued the court could — and should — have “allowed folks to remain here with their TPS status while the lower courts worked it out, but they chose not to do that.”
In a 6-3 decision on Thursday morning, justices cleared the way for the Trump administration to remove those protections.
Temporary protected status allows immigrants from certain countries with natural disasters, armed conflict and major turmoil to live and work legally in the United States. The program protected 1.3 million people from 17 countries, as of January 2025. Since President Donald Trump took office a year and a half ago, federal officials have tried to terminate the program for most countries.
According to the ruling, it is still possible for lower courts to review the Haitian plaintiffs’ claim that then-Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s decision to terminate the designation for Haiti was based in racial animus and violated the Constitution. But, writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito said that the claim “will likely fail” because there is a “strong” explanation for Noem’s decision that has nothing to do with race, but is more focused on the status being temporary.
Elected leaders, including Gov. Maura Healey and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, focused on compassion for Massachusetts’ immigrants in their remarks.
“Our Haitian and Syrian neighbors, friends, coworkers and family members are hearing a message from the highest court in this country that, because they were born in certain places around the world, their futures are somehow less worthy of protection,” said Wu at the State House, her voice breaking.
“You belong here,” said Wu. Her administration is urging Congress to provide a pathway to citizenship for TPS holders.
Immigrants’ next steps
On Saturday, an 8-year-old approached a teacher at the Immigrant Family Services Institute during a music program and asked if the teacher would take her home with her, recounted executive director Geralde Gabeau.
“The teacher said ‘But why? Why do you want me to take you home? You have a family,’” Gabeau recalled. “She said, ‘My parents were talking to me and they said in case they get to be deported, my parents need to find someone to take care of me. Because I was born here, but my parents are here on TPS.’
“Now my question to the Supreme Court: what exactly am I going to say to those 100,000 children who are born here and whose parents are on TPS and can be at any time deported? What should be my answer?” Gabeau said.
The United Way of Massachusetts Bay activated its United Response Fund in partnership with the Healey-Driscoll administration to raise funds “to address the urgent needs TPS-impacted immigrants will experience.”
Boston-based Lawyers for Civil Rights will launch a series of legal clinics to help TPS recipients assess their eligibility for other forms of immigration protection and humanitarian relief.
“We will continue to monitor ICE activity to make sure that neighborhoods where TPS recipients reside, like Mattapan and East Boston, remain safe from unlawful, discriminatory, or aggressive ICE enforcement activity,” said Iván Espinoza-Madrigal, executive director of Lawyers for Civil Rights, in an interview.
Some TPS holders may have already applied for asylum or other protections — and attorneys are exploring if still others could. But the Trump administration has frozen immigration document processing for foreign nationals from several countries, including Haiti. Usually someone is protected from deportation if they’re “mid-process,” but attorneys say that’s now unclear.
“The federal government very much respected the safety and well-being of immigrants who were in the middle of a process,” Espinoza-Madrigal said. “Under the Trump administration, these protections have become more diluted,.”
He said ICE must follow rules when it comes to detaining immigrants. “If ICE is racially profiling and stopping people because they’re perceived to be Haitian, or because they’re perceived to be a TPS recipient. That is illegal,” he said
Next steps for employers
Home and nursing care, as well as construction, will likely be severely impacted when Haitian TPS holders’ work authorizations lapse.
About 1,500 workers will be impacted in Massachusetts nursing care facilities alone, according to the attorney general’s office.
“We want to be out with more guidance to employers who are currently employing TPS holders who are going to have questions about the impact of this ruling,” Healey told GBH News. “This ruling has not yet taken effect, first of all, and each person who has TPS has their own unique circumstance. Employers should not preemptively lay off anyone or terminate anyone until they understand what the situation is for their respective employee.”
She, Campbell and Wu all said that the ruling does not immediately cancel anyone’s work permit.
Greg Reibman, who leads the Charles River Regional Chamber, also said employers shouldn’t assume that all Haitian employees rely on TPS for work authorization.
“Many Haitian and Syrian employees are authorized to work through other migration benefits, including pending asylum applications with valid Employment Authorization Documents,” he wrote in a newsletter right after the decision. “Employment decisions should always be based on employees current work authorization documents, not assumptions based on nationality or immigration status.”
