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Hundreds of Haitians living in the United States faced an uncertain future on Monday as Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which allows them to live and work legally in the country, expired.
The development follows a US Supreme Court ruling last month allowing the Trump administration to end TPS for Haitians and about 6,000 Syrians without judicial review, a decision that could also affect migrants from several other countries.
An estimated 350,000 Haitians currently live in the US under the programme, many of whom work in sectors such as healthcare and construction.
Nancy Hagans, president of the New York Nurses Association, said thousands of Haitian healthcare workers represented by the union would lose their legal right to work after the protection expired. She said ending the programme would deprive hospitals, nursing homes and underserved communities of vital workers while also affecting local economies.
“What the government just did was take resources not only from the hospitals, from the nursing homes, from the underserved communities (but) also taking away economic value from our communities,” she said.
One Haitian healthcare worker, who has lived in the US under TPS for years, told AFP she had yet to decide where to go, describing the uncertainty as overwhelming.
She said she felt trapped despite having done nothing wrong and feared the emotional impact her departure would have on the woman she cares for.
Hagans said the union had advised affected members to prepare for possible immigration enforcement by organising their personal documents and finances. She noted that many Haitians under TPS have spent more than two decades in the United States, with established careers, homes and families.
“We’re telling them to get their papers in order. If they have money in the bank to make sure they take the money. Some of them own homes. They’ve been here for 26, 27 years — they built a life here,” she said.
Temporary Protected Status shields migrants from deportation if their home countries are deemed unsafe because of conflict, natural disasters or other extraordinary conditions.
Last week, a Republican senator blocked an attempt by congressional Democrats to extend TPS for Haitians.
Since returning to office in 2025, President Donald Trump has revoked TPS protections for migrants from more than a dozen countries, including Venezuela, Nicaragua, Honduras and Somalia, as part of his administration’s tougher immigration policies.
Haiti has endured decades of political instability, poverty, corruption and natural disasters, including the devastating 2010 earthquake. The country has not held elections since 2016, and its last president was assassinated in 2021.
Since early 2024, powerful armed gangs have tightened their grip on much of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and key transport routes, worsening an already severe security crisis.
