Mass. lawmakers roast Trump’s plan to end protected status for Haitians
With a Feb. 3 deadline just two weeks away, Massachusetts Democrats warned Tuesday that the Trump administration's move to end protections for Haitians could upend thousands of families statewide.
At a Boston hearing, U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and U.S. Reps. Ayanna Pressley, D-7th District, and Seth Moulton, D-6th District, sharply criticized the administration's plan to let Temporary Protected Status expire for Haitian immigrants.
They said it would put roughly 350,000 people nationwide — including about 4,700 in Massachusetts — at risk of deportation.
Pressley underscored the scale of the issue in Massachusetts, home to one of the largest Haitian communities in the country.
"My district represents the third-largest Haitian diaspora in the country. More than 77,000 Haitians call the commonwealth their home," she said.
TPS is granted to people from countries facing conflict, natural disaster or other extraordinary conditions.
"TPS has received bipartisan support for over 30 years as a program," Pressley said, noting that Haitians have relied on the status since the 2010 earthquake and, more recently, after the assassination of Haiti's president and a surge in gang violence.
While the lawmakers focused their criticism on the Trump administration's decision to let the designation expire, both Pressley and Markey stressed that their advocacy has spanned administrations of both parties.
Pressley said she has "urged Democratic and Republican Presidents alike… to support Haiti, to support Haiti in its efforts to build the nation, to support a democratic transition." Markey echoed that point, saying, "I have called on every recent American president to designate, extend and re-designate TPS for Haiti."
Still, the tone toward the current administration was clear. Markey said that despite evidence of worsening conditions, "it's clear to all, including the Trump administration, that Haitian TPS holders cannot return home safely. That's what we give that protection for, because they cannot go home."
Markey described a country paralyzed by violence and disaster. Since the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, he said, gangs have seized control of much of Port-au-Prince, with kidnappings and armed attacks blocking access to medical care, education and commerce. Natural disasters have further battered Haiti's already fragile infrastructure.
The hearing came against the backdrop of an ongoing federal court case in Washington, D.C., where lawyers are seeking to block the expiration of TPS while a lawsuit challenging the administration's decision proceeds. A federal judge is expected to rule by Feb. 2, the day before the protections are scheduled to end.
The potential reversal marks a turn from 18 months ago, when the Biden administration extended Haiti's TPS designation through Feb. 3, 2026, citing ongoing violence, political instability and environmental disasters. That extension was welcomed by Massachusetts officials, who noted that Haitians made up the vast majority of new arrivals to the state at the time. Many of these immigrants took low-paying jobs filling gaps in the health care sector.
Advocates of the administration's decision say the move is part of a broader push to enforce immigration laws and return TPS to its original temporary intent, with the Department of Homeland Security arguing that permitting Haitian nationals to remain temporarily in the United States "is contrary to the national interest."
"This decision restores integrity in our immigration system and ensures that Temporary Protective Status is actually temporary," a DHS spokesperson said in an announcement from June about the termination of the status.
"The environmental situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home," the spokesperson said.
At Tuesday's hearing, lawmakers emphasized the economic and social ties Haitian TPS holders have built in Massachusetts. Markey offered a personal reflection from his hometown.
"I live in Malden ... My neighbors are now Haitians in Ward Two in Malden, and they work hard. They work two jobs," Markey said.
Moulton framed the issue through his experience responding to the 2010 earthquake as a veteran accompanying Boston medical teams.
"What I witnessed in Haiti was the best of Boston, the best of Massachusetts, the best of America showing up to help those in need," the Salem lawmaker said.
He said that Haitians who later settled in Massachusetts have repaid that compassion, "strengthening the American quilt as their fabric has become interwoven with our own."
Allowing TPS to expire now, Moulton said, would "tear all that apart."
Advocates and TPS holders on the panel described the personal toll of the uncertainty.
Franklin Soults of 32BJ SEIU, which represents thousands of health care workers, said one of the misunderstandings about TPS is that it does not provide a direct pathway to citizenship or permanent residency, such as through a green card.
"There is no path for them to normalize their status, to turn it into something permanent," he said, adding that he's advocated for years in Washington unsuccessfully to reform this.
Soults read testimony from Jerome, a Haitian TPS holder living on the North Shore with his wife and 10-year-old daughter, a U.S. citizen. Jerome's wife, a caretaker, expects to lose her job when TPS expires next month.
Jerome said his daughter tries hard in school, but he's beginning to see the anxiety wear her down.
"I can see the stress of her thinking all the time, what will my life be like if my parents can't be with me?" Soults said, reading from Jerome's testimony.
Another panelist, Bruno, who fled Haiti after the 2010 earthquake destroyed the grocery store he owned and operated there, spoke about how grateful he's been to raise his three children in the United States. He is a driver for the MBTA who is also working on getting his commercial driver's license.
"We are profoundly grateful to the United States for welcoming us during that time of crisis," he said. "My children have been brought up, been educated here, and become part of the fabric of Massachusetts. This is their home today."
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