On June 25, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Trump regime’s bid to strip temporary protected status (TPS) away from some 375,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians. These refugees have been legally residing in the U.S. and protected from deportation—some for several decades.
The State Department currently warns against traveling to either Haiti or Syria, citing widespread violence, crime, terrorism and kidnapping. Now all refugees from countries with a TPS designation are considered under threat as the ruling will permit President Trump to end their protected status, regardless of how risky it would be for immigrants to be deported to their home countries.
In her dissent from the conservative 6 to 3 majority, Justice Elena Kagan cited evidence that race played a role in President Trump’s decision to revoke TPS status for Haitians. She referenced his many racially charged attacks on immigrants of color, including calling Haiti a “s***-hole country” and falsely claiming Haitians in Springfield, Ohio were eating cats and dogs. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Guerline Jozef, executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, which advocates for fair and humane immigration policies and provides immigrants with legal and social services. Here she talks about the ruling and the consequences for hundreds of thousands of Haitians who have built a life in the U.S. over many years.
GUERLINE JOZEF: This decision from the Supreme Court, I will say the injustice of the justice system impacts over 375,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians who have been living in the United States for the past 3, 5, 10, 15 years. They are the people who came here in search of safety and protection due to extreme conditions that have plagued Haiti for a very long time since after the earthquake that happened in 2010, killing over 250,000 people and leaving the country in complete chaos. The reality is, the narrative we hear across the country from people who are trying to destroy the lives of Haitian TPS holders are saying it says “temporary” in the name itself, but it’s a full sentence. It says temporary, based on current country conditions and unfortunately for the Haitian people, the Haitian immigrants like myself who are here in the United States paying our taxes, giving back to communities, it is impossible for us to go back home right now even when we would like to. It is simply not possible right now.
SCOTT HARRIS: When we hear a figure like 375,000 Haitian immigrants that are currently under TPS and will have it yanked away and possibly be deported, those numbers really don’t tell the story. And I’ve just been reading something about how the Haitians that are here in the U.S. are professionals of all kind. Reporters, business owners, caretakers, construction workers. They actually contribute $29 billion annually to the U.S. economy in addition to paying $7.8 billion in taxes. And these people all have families. They have their hopes and their dreams and they’ve been here, as you said, for decades, some of them, 30 years, their entire life, children. Tell us about the community and how they’re responding to this threat.
GUERLINE JOZEF: Complete fear and trauma. As the news came out, I will share with you that every last Saturday of the month, we usually have a big community engagement where we provide legal support, provide social services, medical check-in and also diaper food drive where we actually receive over 400 people, come in and get what they need for the week for the weeks ahead. But this Saturday, only 75 people showed up. That tells you the level of fear and trauma that the community immediately began to feel. So now what we are looking at is potentially major family separation of U.S.-born children whose parents are now in complete limbo and not knowing if they go to school, when they come back home, their parents will still be there.
SCOTT HARRIS: What can the Haitian community do to fight potentially hundreds of thousands of deportation orders? The Supreme Court left a little room for constitutional challenges, but many of the justices who voted for this, they dismissed all the evidence of the racist element that is part of these deportation orders. What can the Haitian community do to fight it?
GUERLINE JOZEF: Right now, the Haitian community—we cannot fight it by ourselves. We need black, white, brown, anyone who stands for justice, anyone who stands for humanity to join forces with the Haitian community, to stand against this injustice, to understand that today it’s the Haitians and the Syrians. Tomorrow is going to be all of us. That is the first thing. Currently, we are waiting to see what the notice will be from DHS and USCIS so we can study it and understand what the next steps for the communities are. In addition, as you mentioned, the legal teams are still looking into what’s possible as they move forward on the legal front. But at the same time we have been working with Congress and we currently have a Senate bill S4814 that will be able to provide safety and protection for Haitian TPS holders who are currently in the United States for the next three years.
So we are asking anyone from California to Arkansas, from Colorado to Washington, D.C. to please call on your senators, specifically the red states to make sure that we are able to protect the Haitian TPS holders, who are our neighbors. Or if you don’t have any interest, understand that these people are the ones working, caring for our United States of America. And as we are heading into celebrating 250 years of this country, those people have been a part of it. They have been putting everything they have into this country and it is only fair that we all together, as we celebrate 250 years, make sure that includes protection for those who are extremely vulnerable, and push back against this extreme family separation that we will be witnessing. And push back against the deportation of people into Haiti—unfortunately, who cannot go right now, and partly due to U.S. foreign policies in and towards Haiti.
Listen to Scott Harris’ in-depth interview with Guerline Jozef (18:02) and see more articles and opinion pieces in the related links section of this page. To subscribe to our podcasts, email newsletters, our Trump authoritarian playbook Substack or social media, subscribe here. Subscribe to our Weekly Summary
