NEW YORK, CMC – New York Attorney General Letitia James says she has co-led a coalition of 17 other attorneys general in the United States in defending the legal status of hundreds of thousands of Haitian immigrants, including many who have lived and worked in the US for over a decade.
On Wednesday, James said the coalition filed an amicus brief with the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in support of a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for attempting to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for more than 350,000 Haitians.
James and the coalition argue that terminating TPS for Haitians would jeopardize the safety, health, and economy of communities throughout the country, and upend the lives of families who have been living and working in the United States for years.
“Every day, Haitian immigrants contribute immensely to New York, from working in our schools and hospitals to running successful small businesses,” said the Attorney General.
“This administration’s continued efforts to strip away the legal status of hundreds of thousands of Haitians will put families in danger and tear apart our communities.
“I will keep fighting to protect immigrants’ rights and ensure Haitians with TPS can continue living, working, and raising their families safely in this country,” she vowed, stating that nearly one in four TPS holders nationwide is Haitian.
James and the coalition argue that eliminating TPS for Haitians would cause chaos in the lives of hundreds of thousands of families, including the many US citizens living with a Haitian family member with TPS.
In 2022, she said 87,000 US citizen children and 116,000 US citizen adults lived with a Haitian TPS holder. James warned that TPS-holder parents would be forced to choose between abandoning their children and returning to Haiti alone, taking their families with them to a “dangerous and unfamiliar country, or remaining in the US without legal status and with the constant fear that they could be forcibly separated and deported to Haiti at any time.”
The attorneys general point out that Haitian TPS holders pay over US$140 million annually in New York state and local taxes, and contribute over US$800 million
to the state’s economy.
In addition, they said that ending work authorization for hundreds of thousands of Haitians with TPS would deprive many of them and their families of their employer-
sponsored health insurance.
“Without legal status, Haitian immigrants and their loved ones would be less likely to seek treatment at hospitals and clinics, where the Trump administration has increased immigration enforcement,” argue the attorneys general, urging the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to reject the federal government’s motion to stay the district court’s decision preventing DHS from terminating TPS for more than 350,000 Haitians while the case continues.
Joining James in submitting this brief are the attorneys general from the states of California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai‘i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia.
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