{"id":304664,"date":"2026-07-24T12:26:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T12:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/304664\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T12:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T12:26:10","slug":"this-new-york-family-is-bracing-themselves-for-a-devastating-loss-if-work-permits-expire-for-haitians-with-tps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/304664\/","title":{"rendered":"This New York family is bracing themselves for a devastating loss if work permits expire for Haitians with TPS"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Sabine French says she\u2019s in denial.\n <\/p>\n

\n In a matter of days, her 91-year-old mother may lose the caregiver who\u2019s played a vital role in her daily life for the last three years.\n <\/p>\n

\n The work permits issued to hundreds of thousands of Haitians who\u2019ve had Temporary Protected Status in the United States are set to expire soon<\/a>, after a Supreme Court ruling last month upheld the Trump administration\u2019s decision to end Haitians\u2019 protections under the program.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Trump administration has called the court\u2019s ruling a \u201ctremendous win,\u201d<\/a> arguing that TPS designations that provided deportation protections and work permits for citizens of Haiti and other countries were always meant to be temporary.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cFor too long, TPS has been allowed to function as a de facto amnesty program despite Congress never intending it to be permanent,\u201d a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement this week.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe Trump Administration is restoring integrity to the immigration system by ensuring that individuals who no longer qualify for TPS either pursue another lawful immigration status, voluntarily depart using the Department\u2019s available return assistance, or face removal in accordance with federal law.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n But for months, elder care industry leaders have been sounding the alarm<\/a> about the particularly significant hit<\/a> their workforce will take if Haitians who\u2019ve been on TPS no longer have the permits allowing them to work legally in the US.\n <\/p>\n

\n Revoking those protections simply doesn\u2019t make sense, according to French. She says her mom, who lives in Queens, New York, and struggles with mobility issues and vision loss, is terrified of losing the help of her home care aide. The caregiver is a Haitian woman in her 60s who came to the US after the 2010 earthquake.\n <\/p>\n

\n Finding a caring and responsible aide who could communicate with her Haitian-born mom in Creole has been a game-changer for their family, French says. And now, she says, the possibility of losing a key part of their support system is devastating.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI can\u2019t really believe that this will happen,\u201d says French, an immigration advocate and consultant in New York City. \u201cIt\u2019s like, why? It\u2019s like firing your best worker for no apparent reason.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n CNN spoke with French this week about what the looming uncertainty means for her family and what she wishes more Americans understood about the situation. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.\n <\/p>\n

\n Everything. She shops for her. She does her laundry. \u2026 She makes sure she takes her medication. She makes sure my mother checks her sugar every day. She makes sure my mother checks her blood pressure, and she monitors her blood pressure. She makes sure my mother has all of the little strips, and then the things you stick your finger with. She makes sure my mother doesn\u2019t miss appointments. She encourages my mom to eat. \u2026 She does the cleaning around the house for my mother, everything.\n <\/p>\n

\n It\u2019s just a huge help, you know? It\u2019s knowing the person personally, and her having the support, the service. \u2026 I cannot imagine finding someone else to replace her. \u2026 It\u2019s a roller coaster. It\u2019s so much to deal with.\n <\/p>\n

\n I\u2019ll tell you, to be honest, a part of me, I\u2019m in denial. And I\u2019m in denial because it just doesn\u2019t make sense. \u2026 And again, as an advocate, I\u2019m giving it thought on that perspective. There are doctors on TPS. There are nurses on TPS, school bus drivers, paraprofessionals, you name it. So I\u2019m in denial, because I don\u2019t understand, why would you do this? I\u2019m really expecting something to happen. \u2026 I\u2019m advocating, but I\u2019m in denial. At the last minute, there\u2019s going to be an extension, in my mind.\n <\/p>\n

\n But I have to give you the flip side, though. If there is an extension, right, it\u2019s just a Band-Aid. Because is it a two-month extension? Is it a one-year extension? And so that\u2019s the gift and the curse. Because a lot of people are going to exhale, and then we\u2019ll be right back here again. An extension is, it\u2019s a placebo pill, it\u2019s a momentary resolution.\n <\/p>\n

\n (A federal appeals court gave Haitians on TPS a brief reprieve this week, issuing a decision Wednesday<\/a> that keeps in place a lower court\u2019s order that blocks the revocation of TPS and the expiration of work permits until at least July 27, three days later than a prior expiration date announced by the Department of Homeland Security. Asked to respond to families\u2019 concerns about losing trusted caregivers, and asked whether the protections could be extended further, a DHS spokesperson defended the decision to end TPS for Haiti. \u201cConditions in Haiti have improved sufficiently to support the return of Haitian nationals, and DHS encourages eligible individuals to utilize available resources, including the CBP Home program, to facilitate a safe and orderly departure,\u201d the spokesperson said. \u201cThis decision restores TPS to its intended purpose while reinforcing that U.S. immigration laws will be enforced consistently and that temporary protections cannot become permanent by default.\u201d)\n <\/p>\n

\"Solange<\/p>\n

What do you think a good solution would be, and who are you looking to, to fix this?<\/p>\n

\n A temporary solution is Senate Bill 4814<\/a>, which, if the Democrats and Republicans get together and pass it, will be a three-year extension of TPS. So, then, after that, a solution would be for someone to finally create a pathway to citizenship. \u2026 A path to citizenship is the answer\u2026whether it\u2019s resetting the clock from scratch and saying, five years from now, you don\u2019t get into trouble, you work, you get a green card, or whatever it looks like. But this can\u2019t continue.\n <\/p>\n

\n My mom\u2019s very concerned. My mom\u2019s been in America over 50 years. My father\u2019s deceased, my father was a union electrician, a small business owner. They own a home, they never got into any trouble. My mom is a legal green card holder. She feels like she shouldn\u2019t be in this situation. You know, vicariously, she\u2019s stressed about this. \u2026 My mom feels as if it\u2019s not fair to her that she has to deal with this.\n <\/p>\n

What do you wish more people understood about what you and your family are going through, and what your mom\u2019s aide is going through?<\/p>\n

\n People are people. You know, immigrants, Haitians, they just come here to have a better life. Every race, every nationality has bad characters. That\u2019s just the way humanity works. But if you look at the majority of TPS holders, they work. They\u2019re taxpayers. They mind their business. They just want to function. That\u2019s what I want people to understand. And you never know who\u2019s a TPS holder. There are TPS holders that have children that are American. So your child\u2019s best friend can be crying at night thinking that they\u2019ll lose their mother. Your child\u2019s best friend can be on TPS. \u2026 Having TPS is not a bad thing. It\u2019s an opportunity to work and pay your bills and be productive. \u2026 No one is getting freebies. No one is milking the system. They just want to work.\n <\/p>\n

\"Sabine<\/p>\n

\n I was born here. I\u2019ve always felt that, as an American citizen, I should use my privilege. \u2026 I feel I have to speak out. I\u2019m a first-generation Haitian American. I grew up around all immigrants. I speak Creole. My first language was French. \u2026 So, you know, at this time, when people who are in this situation can\u2019t speak out, I have to. I\u2019m an American. That has to mean something.\n <\/p>\n

\n CNN\u2019s Tami Luhby and Michael Williams contributed to this report.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sabine French says she\u2019s in denial. In a matter of days, her 91-year-old mother may lose the caregiver…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[21881,9,11,10],"class_list":["post-304664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-enterprise","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}