NEW YORK, CMC – Caribbean-American New York State Democratic Assemblyman, Brian Cunningham, has condemned the Trump administration’s termination of the Family Reunification Parole programme for Haitian and Cuban families, alongside continued rollbacks of Temporary Protected Status (TPS).
Cunningham, the son of Jamaican immigrants, who represents the 43rd Assembly District in Brooklyn, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) on Tuesday that the administration’s unrelenting assault on Caribbean and other immigrants is deeply troubling.
“As the son of Jamaican immigrants and a representative of Crown Heights, Flatbush, and Prospect Lefferts Gardens (in Brooklyn), I know that immigration policy is about real families and real communities, not abstract politics,” he said.
“The Trump administration’s decision to terminate Family Reunification Parole for Haitian and Cuban families, alongside continued rollbacks of Temporary Protected Status, is deeply harmful and fundamentally unfair.
“In the neighborhoods I represent, Haitian families are not a talking point. They are small business owners, health care workers, faith leaders, and neighbors who have built their lives here while following lawful processes created by the federal government itself,” Cunningham added.
He said that Family Reunification Parole exists because the immigration system is severely backlogged, with visa wait times stretching for years, and ending this programme and stripping work authorization from families who relied on it in good faith does not strengthen the system.
It destabilizes households, undermines trust in legal pathways, and places long-standing communities in unnecessary fear, he said, adding that for Haitian families in particular, this decision is especially devastating, given the ongoing humanitarian and security crises they face.
“Programmes like TPS and Family Reunification Parole have allowed families to remain safe, together, and stable while contributing to the economic and cultural life of Brooklyn.”
The assemblyman said Caribbean immigrants are “essential to the identity and vitality of our borough,” stating that “policies that tear families apart weaken our neighborhoods and betray the values of fairness, dignity, and opportunity that should guide our laws.
“I stand with Haitian and Cuban families across Brooklyn and will continue working with my colleagues at every level of government to restore protections, keep families together, and pursue immigration policies that reflect both humanity and common sense,” he added.
Cunningham said he has been pressing “consistently state and federal partners to address immigration backlogs, protect humanitarian relief programs, and center family unity in policy decisions.”
He said his office has remained in close coordination with community leaders, legal advocates, and fellow lawmakers, and he has pledged to continue using his platform and legislative role to “fight for restored protections and durable, humane immigration solutions for the families who call Brooklyn home.”
The San Diego, California-based Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA) has also condemned the Trump administration’s policy for families from Haiti and Cuba, as well as from Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, stripping them of work authorization.
“It is a white nationalist attack on Black and Brown immigrant communities dressed up in bureaucratic language about ‘security’ and ‘common-sense’ policy,” HBA Executive Director Guerline Jozef told CMC.
“Let’s be clear: this is not about security. This is about an administration using racist, nativist scare tactics to dismantle lawful family reunification and terrorise Black and Brown immigrants.
“Family Reunification Parole was created to keep families together and provide a safe, legal pathway while people waited for visas that the US government itself told them would take years.
“Now those same families—many of them Haitian—are being punished for trusting the system. It is state violence, it is anti-Black, and it is an unacceptable betrayal of basic human dignity.”
Jozef said this latest decision comes on the heels of the administration’s move to terminate TPS for Haiti, Ethiopia, and other countries.
Jozef said the decision follows Trump’s Executive Order 14165, which ordered the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to terminate “categorical parole programs as part of the administration’s broader anti-immigrant agenda.”
In the Federal Registrar, DHS said it was terminating the FRP programmes as of December 15, 2025.
“The temporary parole period of aliens who have been paroled into the United States under the FRP programmes, and whose initial period of parole has not already expired by January 14, 2026, will terminate on that date,” DHS said.
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