Scores of residents have been left fearing for their future following the US government’s order to remove temporary protected status for Syrians and Haitians.
On Thursday, the US Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 vote along ideological lines that US President Donald Trump could move forward with his plans to end legal protections for Syrians and Haitians.
Though the move has long been expected, it is fuelled concerns among thousands of Syrians and hundreds of thousands of Haitians, many of whom have deep social and professional ties to the US, in some cases having lived in the country since childhood and speaking English as their primary language.
“It’s devastating to my clients, but it’s not surprising. It’s part of Trump’s delegalisation process. He has steadily been taking away people’s right to live here legally,” Hussein Elbakri, an attorney with the International Refugee Assistance Project, told The New Arab. “In general, many of my clients are left in a state of uncertainty,” he said.
There are currently 1.3 million people from 17 countries holding Temporary Protected Status (TPS). With the recent ruling, around 6,000 Syrians and 330,000 Haitians will lose their status starting on 27 July, at which point they will no longer be legally protected from deportation. If Trump succeeds in reversing the protected status of all who hold the designation, this would be the largest mass deportation operation in US history.
TPS is a humanitarian programme that started in 1990 with the purpose of giving legal protection to people from countries where returning would be too dangerous (due to extreme cases, such as war or natural disaster). Other countries designated with TPS include Afghanistan, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Somalia, Yemen, Sudan and Ukraine.
In the case of Syria, which is recovering from 15 years of armed conflict, many parts of the country remain unsafe, while many who left during Bashar al-Assad's crackdown have built their lives outside of the country. Some of those who have left Syria, say it remains unsafe for members of the LGBTQ+ community.
“It is ironic that this is happening specifically at this time because, at a time when I was essentially celebrating the rights that I have gotten when I came to this country by being able to be the person that I actually am without fear,” said a Syrian TPS holder in a voice note to the International Refugee Assistance Project following Trump’s decision to remove his country’s protected status, referring to the news falling around Pride Month.
“Whether it is being with your partner at a subway holding hands, not fearing someone essentially attacking you, and even if you were to be, you know that your community is going to stand up for you and protect you. Something that I truly missed when I was in Syria. But I genuinely don’t know what comes next,” he said.
In the case of Haiti, the country has been experiencing continuous unrest since 2020, and before that, years of poverty, violence and natural disasters. Haitians in the US have been under particular strain following a false rumour from two years ago, spread with the help of Trump, that Haitians in Springfield, Ohio were eating cats and dogs.
Another community at risk of losing their protected status are Afghans, many of whom were promised a safe life in the US after fighting alongside US forces against the Taliban and who would face retribution if they returned.
“We’ll continue to look at avenues in the district courts,” said Elbakri.