New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani sharply criticized the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday after it cleared the way for the Trump administration to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for hundreds of thousands of Haitian and Syrian immigrants. In a statement, Mamdani said the ruling “just sparked one of the largest attacks on immigrants in modern American history.” He added, “In one fell swoop, thousands of Haitians and Syrians now risk losing the right to live and work in the country they call home.” The court’s 6-3 decision permits the administration to terminate TPS for about 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians who have been living and working legally in the United States.
Mamdani said the decision would hit New York City especially hard. “These are people who fled earthquakes, famine, war and political violence,” he said. “People who came to this country looking for freedom, safety and democracy.” He continued, “They built lives here. They raised families here. They opened small businesses, attended church and mosque, looked after their neighbors. America is home.”
The mayor pledged that the city would keep standing by immigrants affected by the ruling. “To the tens of thousands of New Yorkers with TPS who are watching the news, frightened about what comes next, hear me clearly: New York City is your home. You belong here. We will not turn our backs on you.” He said the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs would soon release additional guidance and urged immigrants who need help to contact the city’s legal support hotline.
What Temporary Protected Status Is
Congress created Temporary Protected Status in 1990 to shield people from deportation when their home countries face armed conflict, natural disasters or other extraordinary conditions. Haiti has been designated for TPS since 2010, after its devastating earthquake, and Syria has held the designation since 2012 because of its civil war. While the Supreme Court’s decision directly affects Haitian and Syrian beneficiaries, it could also signal the court’s willingness to back the administration’s broader effort to end TPS protections for roughly 1.3 million immigrants from 17 countries.
The administration has already moved to terminate TPS for about one million people from 13 countries, including roughly 650,000 Venezuelans and 50,000 Hondurans. Decisions remain pending for approximately 200,000 Salvadorans and 100,000 Ukrainians whose protections expire in the coming months. The administration argued that the Department of Homeland Security, not the courts, has sole authority to decide whether TPS protections should continue. The Supreme Court’s conservative majority agreed and allowed the administration to proceed.
Legal Fallout and What Comes Next
Immigration attorneys warned that the ruling could have far-reaching consequences. “The decision is definitely bad news,” said Ahilan Arulanantham, co-director of UCLA’s Center for Immigration Law and Policy, who represented Syrian TPS holders. “The implication of this is that at least most of the claims that have been litigated to challenge this administration’s sort of illegal war on TPS are now foreclosed.” Lawyers for TPS recipients maintain that both Haiti and Syria remain unsafe because of ongoing instability, and they argue the administration did not properly evaluate conditions before moving to end the protections.
Although the ruling gives the administration room to act, its effects will not be immediate. Supreme Court decisions typically take effect 32 days after they are issued, and the case must first go back to lower courts before the decision can be implemented. As a result, Haitian and Syrian TPS holders are expected to keep their work authorization until at least late July, according to attorneys cited by The Associated Press.
Advocates are urging affected people to explore other legal options, including asylum and employment-based visas, though they acknowledge those paths have become increasingly narrow. Others are calling on Congress to act. “We also call on Congress to immediately restore these vital humanitarian protections that the TPS program represents,” said attorney Melissa Keenan, “for the sake of our clients and TPS holders, their families, and all of our communities.”
