NEW YORK, New York – New York Attorney General, Letitia James, is among 18 of her colleagues who are opposing what they describe as the Trump administration’s “unlawful and baseless attempt” to strip Temporary Protected Status (TPS) from Haitian and Venezuelan immigrants.
Letitia James (file Photo)James said TPS is “a critical humanitarian program that protects individuals from being returned to countries that have been deemed unsafe due to ongoing armed conflict, environmental disaster, or other extraordinary conditions that prevent their safe return.”
In an amicus brief filed on Tuesday, James and the other attorneys general highlight the “devastating economic, social, and humanitarian consequences of ending these TPS protections” and urge the court to block the proposed actions.
“New York is home to thousands of hardworking Haitian and Venezuelan immigrants who are members of our communities, our culture and our economy,” James told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) afterwards.
“Stripping these individuals of their legal status will not make our communities safer or stronger, it will only put immigrants and their families in harm’s way. I urge the court to block this unlawful action and uphold these potentially life-saving legal protections,” she added.
James said that, despite ongoing humanitarian crises in both Haiti and Venezuela, the Trump administration has taken actions that would terminate TPS protections for Haitians and Venezuelans who were provided the opportunity to apply for that legal status in 2010 for Haiti and 2021 for Venezuela.
“These terminations would decrease the amount of time Haitian and Venezuelan TPS holders are allowed to stay in the US with work authorization and subject them to the risk of deportation,” she said.
James and the coalition allege in the amicus brief that the Trump administration’s changes to TPS were made without regard for the perilous conditions in both Haiti and Venezuela and, if allowed to take effect, would “upend the lives of hundreds of thousands of TPS holders and their families.
“Haiti remains in a state of political instability, with rampant gang violence, economic collapse, and a breakdown of government institutions. Similarly, Venezuela continues to experience a humanitarian emergency, marked by extreme poverty, food and medical shortages, and political repression.
“Despite these dire conditions, the Trump administration moved to end protections for TPS holders, jeopardizing the safety of countless individuals,” they argue.
In addition to the humanitarian impact, the attorneys general argue that terminating TPS would disrupt local economies and strain state resources in multiple states, including New York.
“Haitian and Venezuelan TPS holders are critical members of the workforce, filling essential roles in healthcare, education, construction, and other industries. Many are homeowners and business owners who contribute billions to the economy through wages and taxes.”
They note that New York is home to about 56,800 TPS holders, and that more than 5,400 Haitian TPS holders live in New York City alone.
In 2023, the coalition says New York TPS households earned US$2.3 billion in income, paid US$348.9 million in federal taxes, US$305.5 million in state and local taxes, and contributed US$1.6 billion in spending power.
The attorneys general further argue that families of Haitian and Venezuelan TPS holders will be harmed if changes to the program are not postponed.
In 2022, they say about 141,000 US citizen children and 196,000 US citizen adults lived with a Haitian or Venezuelan TPS holder.
Thus, the coalition says over 330,000 US citizens lived in “mixed status” households with loved ones “who the administration now seeks to strip of their legal status.”
They say this figure does not account for the hundreds of thousands of Haitians and Venezuelans who were newly eligible under the 2023 and 2024 designations.
The attorneys general argue that terminating TPS would create “serious hardship for these households, withdrawing their members’ work authorization and exposing them to the threat of deportation.”
In addition, they say it would force TPS-holder parents to make the “agonizing choice” between “returning to their country of origin alone, leaving their children behind in broken families and the foster care system; taking their family members, some of whom are American citizens, with them to a dangerous country that they do not know; or staying in the United States and retreating into the shadows, knowing that they cannot work legally and could be ripped from their families at any time.”
In the brief, the attorneys said that when former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Mayorkas extended Venezuela’s TPS designation in January of this year, he cited 52 sources indicating that Venezuela remained in a state of “severe humanitarian emergency.”
A month later, the attorneys general say, when current DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced the termination of Venezuela’s TPS designation, “she did not cite a single source, baselessly claiming there have been ‘notable improvements in several areas’ in Venezuela.
“When announcing the plan to vacate Haiti’s TPS designation, Secretary Noem did not even attempt to argue that Haiti’s conditions had improved, but instead speculated that recent developments ‘might result in an improvement in conditions,” they said.
The coalition also notes that both Haiti and Venezuela remain on the US Department of State’s list of “Level 4: Do Not Travel” countries due to the ongoing conditions in each nation.
