End of TPS for Haiti, Syria outrages pols |

Lawmakers in and beyond Queens are denouncing the Supreme Court’s June 25 decision upholding the Trump administration’s termination of Temporary Protected Status for immigrants from Haiti and Syria.

TPS lets certain nationals from countries facing extraordinary conditions — such as war or natural disasters — live and work in the United States without the threat of deportation, even without other lawful immigration status. Haiti had received the designation in 2010 after a devastating earthquake killed hundreds of thousands of people, and Syria in 2012 for conditions under its dictatorial regime.

Last year, former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem determined that Haiti and Syria no longer met the statutory requirements for TPS. That makes former recipients eligible for repatriation.

But multiple lawmakers maintain that those countries are still not safe.

“Conditions in both countries are dangerous and TPS allows them not only to be safe, but also work here legally and contribute to our economy,” U.S. Rep. Greg Meeks (D-Jamaica) said on social media. “The fight doesn’t end here, because America is strongest when we stand for humanity.”

Meeks was among those who denounced the 6-3 decision in Washington last week.

State Assemblywoman Alicia Hyndman (D-Springfield Gardens) concurred.

“Ending TPS for Haitians and Syrians will mean sending thousands of nationals to countries in bad conditions due to gang violence, widespread corruption, and political instability, worsening the humanitarian crises,” Hyndman said in a statement, adding that Haitian nationals have called Cambria Heights, Hollis, Jamaica, Rosedale and St. Albans home.

She said the court decision would lead to the “mass deportation” of people who have contributed to the United States economy — a press release from her office said Haitians alone have generated $4.4 billion annually, as of 2025.

A 2026 report from the organization Forward U.S., FWD.us, shows that about 40,000 TPS recipients from Haiti live in the state, and more than 5,000 in the city.

Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. on Monday held a rally against the decision on the steps of Borough Hall, alongside organizations including Queens Says No Kings and Haitian Americans United for Progress.

“Queens will fight this white supremacist regime’s attempt at ethnic cleansing, sanctioned by six unelected right-wing extremists, with every fiber of its being,” Richards said.

Public Advocate Jumaane Williams said the decision “recklessly empowers a federal government that has repeatedly and thoughtlessly endangered countless lives.”

“As I have said, the Trump administration’s goal is to make as many Black and brown people as possible eligible for deportation, to erase the immigrant communities from this country that their work, culture, and sacrifice have helped to shape,” Williams said. “This ruling is the next phase of that effort, and threatens the safety of hundreds and thousands of people, already fleeing danger — some of which has been perpetuated by our government’s actions.”

Plaintiffs had argued that Haiti’s TPS designation was ended based on race, citing comments by Noem and President Trump. The court ruled otherwise.

“None of the cited statements by either the President or the Secretary was overtly racial, and in substance all expressed policy views that could rest on race-neutral justifications,” the decision reads.

U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D-Flushing) said in a video on social media that the “horrific” decision put hundreds of thousands of people who followed the rules at risk.

“TPS holders are our neighbors,” Meng said. “They are our coworkers, they are small business owners. In many cases, they take care of our family members.

“Nothing in this ruling requires the administration to detain or to deport these people, and these are choices that this administration is making.”

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin has defended the court’s decision, saying TPS was never intended to be permanent.

“We will help assist you in leaving if you would like,” Mullin told Fox News. “We’ll buy you an airline ticket, we’ll give you $2,600 to reestablish yourself someplace else if you don’t want to go back to the country you came from, but you have to leave … and if you choose not to, then we’ll pick you up and force you to leave.”

Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn (D-Brooklyn), who descends from Haitian immigrants, called the court’s decision “a cruel betrayal of our values and a direct threat to the safety and stability of thousands of our neighbors.”

“Let me be entirely clear: this Court did not find that Haiti or Syria are safe,” Hermelyn said in a statement. “They simply chose to lock the courthouse doors and hand the federal administration a blank check to upend the lives of over 350,000 individuals who have followed every single rule.”

To TPS holders in her district and “our vibrant Haitian community,” she said: “you are not alone, and this fight is far from over.”

Another Supreme Court decision made last Thursday upheld the practice of turning back asylum seekers at the southern border before they reach United States soil. A Tuesday ruling upheld birthright citizenship.