TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Hundreds of thousands of Haitians and thousands of Syrians are expected to lose Temporary Protected Status (TPS) following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that gives the Department of Homeland Security broad authority to determine when the humanitarian program should be extended or terminated.<\/p>\n
The decision could affect immigrants who have legally lived and worked in the United States for years, leaving many uncertain about their future.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was devastated because I have so many Haitian friends who are in that dilemma right now, not knowing what to do,\u201d said Danielle Wainwright, a Haitian advocate.<\/p>\n
Wainwright said many Haitian TPS recipients have spent decades building lives in the United States and have little to return to in Haiti.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that right now they don\u2019t have anything to go to,\u201d she said. \u201cImagine people who\u2019ve had a life here for 15 or 20 years because of the situation in Haiti. They have not bought a home back home. They have not built anything back home. So they really don\u2019t have anything to go to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Temporary Protected Status allows nationals from designated countries experiencing armed conflict, natural disasters, or other extraordinary humanitarian conditions to legally live and work in the United States while the designation remains in effect.<\/p>\n
Haiti first received TPS following the devastating 2010 earthquake and subsequent political instability and humanitarian crises.<\/p>\n
In its ruling, the Supreme Court determined that the Department of Homeland Security has broad discretion to decide whether TPS designations should continue or end.<\/p>\n
In a statement, DHS General Counsel James Percival supported the decision, saying, \u201cTemporary Protected Status was always supposed to be temporary and can be cancelled at the appropriate time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Immigration attorney Ananis Makar said the ruling was not entirely unexpected but urged those affected to seek legal advice as soon as possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s something to be expected,\u201d Makar said.<\/p>\n
She noted that while options may be limited, some individuals could qualify for other forms of immigration relief, including asylum.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s really important to know your options, to see if you can file for another form of relief, and to really educate yourself on your case,\u201d Makar said.<\/p>\n
For Wainwright, the issue extends beyond immigration policy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we can use some empathy, that would go a long way,\u201d she said. \u201cIf we could look at ourselves and say, \u2018What if this was us in this situation, or a very close family member?\u2019 What would we do? How would we feel? How would we react? Because this is not just the legal aspect, but also how that is impacting people in their everyday lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
It remains unclear when deportations for those who lose TPS could begin. Immigration experts say the process could take weeks or months as the policy is implemented.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Hundreds of thousands of Haitians and thousands of Syrians are expected to lose Temporary Protected…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":728403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,11638,165545,3,111,624,21,19,22,20,25,24,13309],"class_list":["post-728402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-jeff-van-sant","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-tampa","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=728402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/728403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}