‘The termination of TPS is synonymous with the end of my life’
Originally published on Global Voices
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This post is part of Global Voices’ July 2026 Spotlight series, “Statelessness.” This series offers insight into the issue of statelessness and how it hinders people’s freedom of movement, educational opportunities, political access, and more. You can support this coverage by donating here.
The United States Supreme Court has allowed the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) programme for Haitians to come to an end, placing about 350,000 Haitians at risk of deportation.
In June 2024, the Biden administration extended TPS for Haitians by 18 months, moving the end date to August 3, 2025. When President Donald Trump began his second term, then Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem decided to stop the programme, saying the country “no longer qualified” for TPS.
The programme was due to end on February 3, 2026, but just two days prior, Judge Ana Reyes of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued an order to block the cancellation. Several immigrant rights groups filed lawsuits against the government to protect the programme. The Washington, D.C. court order temporarily stopped the cancellation and gave the Haitian community relief, as the deadline was moved to July 1, 2026.
Then, on June 25, 2026, the Supreme Court voted 6–3 in favour of the U.S. government, giving it final approval to end the Haitian TPS programme as planned. The decision also applies to Syrian nationals currently living in the United States under this temporary protection.
According to the California-based migrant rights organisation Haitian Bridge Alliance, Josiane, a Haitian woman who came to the United States in 2021, said she had to leave her country after armed gangs targeted her because of her husband’s political activity. Her husband fled to the Dominican Republic, but gangs still set fire to their home, forcing her to run away for her own safety. The U.S. TPS programme, which Josiane got in 2022, allowed her to work legally, support her family, and pay her bills and taxes. “The termination of TPS is synonymous with the end of my life,” she said. “Every time I hear people talk about deportation, I have heart palpitations because of my extreme hopelessness.”
Pierre (a pseudonym), another Haitian TPS beneficiary, has been living in the United States for over 20 years. He told Global Voices via WhatsApp that the Supreme Court’s decision has crushed him:
Depi lè mwen aprann desizyon Kou Siprèm nan, mwen santi yon veritab dezolasyon. Mwen pa gen enèji pou mwen fè anyen ankò. Anplis, mwen gen pitit ki fèt nan peyi a. Mwen poze tèt mwen anpil kesyon: kisa mwen pral fè, epi kijan yo pral viv si mwen pa avèk yo? Tout bagay sa yo ap toumante lespri mwen. Epi sa mwen pral fè lè kat travay mwen koupe? Kijan mwen pral peye bòdwo mwen epi pran swen fanmi mwen? Sa ki pi grav la, mwen gen anpil fanmi ann Ayiti ki sou kont mwen. Se mwen kap ede yo.
I feel completely devastated. I don’t have the energy to do anything anymore. Also, I have children who were born in this country. I keep asking myself many questions: what will I do, and how will they live if I am not with them? All these things are troubling my mind. And what will I do when my work permit is cut off? How will I pay my bills and take care of my family? What makes it worse is that I have many family members in Haiti who depend on me. I am the one helping them.
On June 25, 2026, the executive director of Haitian Bridge Alliance, Guerline Jozef, noted, “The Supreme Court’s 6–3 ruling in Mullin v. Doe […] is a devastating endorsement of state-sanctioned cruelty. At a moment when Haiti remains gripped by armed violence, political instability, displacement, and a profound humanitarian crisis, the Supreme Court has given the administration a green light to treat hundreds of thousands of Haitian families as disposable.”
The mayor of North Miami, Dr Alix Desulme, also expressed deep concern, stressing that the decision places hundreds of thousands of Haitians in a state of great uncertainty regarding their future, even as their home country continues to grapple with a severe security and humanitarian crisis. He promised to continue supporting the community during this difficult period and encouraged affected families to contact attorneys and reputable immigrant rights organisations to determine the legal options available to them.
The Trump administration has made the fight against illegal immigration a top priority, overturning various measures that his predecessor had put in place, including the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s mobile app CBP One, and the Humanitarian Parole Program, which was implemented in January 2023 and allowed Haitians, Cubans, Venezuelans, and Nicaraguans to enter the United States legally for two years.
Haiti’s migrant community has not fared well under the current administration. While on the campaign trail, Trump put forward a baseless claim accusing them of eating pets, which many of his supporters — including his running mate and now Vice President J.D. Vance — repeated on various platforms. Billionaire Elon Musk, who owns the X social media platform and previously served as the de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), shared posts featuring AI-generated images with millions of X followers, amplifying misinformation and creating significant panic within the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio, about which the initial comments were made. That same community called the Supreme Court’s TPS ruling “just so wrong.”
Meanwhile, as former Fox News host Megyn Kelly went viral for a rant “about immigrants with Temporary Protected Status diluting the American work ethic.” Journalist, filmmaker, and immigration rights activist Jose Antonio Vargas noted on his Facebook page that “an estimated 830,000 TPS holders work in the U.S. labor force. According to the American Immigration Council, 94.6 percent of TPS holders are employed, and the labor force participation rates of long-term TPS holders are considerably higher than the U.S. labor force overall. TPS holders contribute an estimated $29 billion annually to the U.S. economy and pay $7.8 billion in taxes. Never mind its inhumanity, deporting TPS holders back to crisis zones will unnecessarily disrupt essential industries such as healthcare, food, construction, and manufacturing.”
It will also have a significant impact on the Haitian population, which lives mostly off of remittances from the diaspora. The situation on the island is very fragile because of insecurity and gang violence. Gangs control a big part of the country, and are responsible for increasing incidents of kidnapping, rape, extortion, assassination, and other crimes. More than 1.5 million Haitians live in displacement camps in difficult conditions, and over five million Haitians face food insecurity. In the context of the country’s political instability and ongoing socioeconomic crisis, the potential mass deportation of Haitians may well be the straw that breaks its back.