Brooklyn and Queens elected officials and organizers gathered on July 24 to show support for a federal bill that would designate Haiti for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court moving to strip hundreds of thousands of Haitian and Syrian immigrants of their status last month.
“I’m an assemblyman. I’m a lawyer. I have a sister [who] is a doctor. We have nurses, we have teachers,” Assemblymember Clyde Vanel said about his Haitian background at a press conference in Cambria Heights, Queens, on July 24. “We are people [who] work hard, [who] fight, and [who] love America … That’s the Haitian story. The Haitian story is the American story. That’s who we are as a people.”
Haitian immigrants were granted TPS protection in 2010 after a deadly earthquake, and were extended over the years as the country faced additional natural disasters, political turmoil, and public health chaos. In the U.S., the Haitian community and TPS holders fill critical healthcare jobs, contribute an estimated $5.9 billion to the U.S. economy annually, and pay approximately $1.6 billion in taxes, according to the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James.
About 40,000 Haitian TPS holders reside in New York, with the bulk of those communities concentrated in Brooklyn and Queens, said Rep. Gregory Meeks, whose district includes Southeast Queens.
“The Trump administration has chosen to target this community by ending TPS status for Haiti, even as Haiti remains consumed by gang pilots, displacement, hunger, and political collapse,” said Meeks. “The State Department’s own warning is so extraordinary that they are telling Americans traveling to Haiti … to leave DNA samples and dental records behind, so their remains can be identified if they are killed while in Haiti.”
On June 25, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to end TPS protections for Haitians, with the Trump administration arguing that TPS was only meant to be temporary. The Supreme Court’s decision also makes it significantly more difficult to challenge TPS terminations in court, even though the violent and unstable conditions in Haiti meet the criteria for the protection of immigrants from the country.
New York Attorney General Letitia James (at podium) joins elected officials in front of library in Cambria Heights, Queens, on Friday, July 24, 2026, to discuss protecting Haitian TPS. (Ariama C. Long photos) 
Congressmember Gregory Meeks (at podium) at library in Cambria Heights, Queens, on July 24, discussing his legislation to protect Haitian TPS. (Ariama C. Long photos) 
Assumed ICE agents in black vehicles in Brooklyn in July 2026. (Gerard Cadet photo)
The House has passed a bill (H.R.1689), introduced last year, that would reinstate Haitian TPS for a period of 18 months, give work authorization, and defend against detention and deportation. Now, electeds are pushing for the Senate to do the same with Bill S.4814, which would extend Haitian TPS until 2029, but it was blocked by Republicans, said Meeks.
“This administration cannot credibly tell Americans to prepare for death in Haiti while claiming that Haiti is safe enough for hundreds of thousands of people to be deported there. It’s hypocritical. TPS was created exactly for moments like this,” Meeks said.
Representatives of dozens of business owners, organizers, and healthcare unions, such as the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), were also at the press conference.
“My mother was a home care attendant, and my father was a taxi medallion owner. As Haitians, we are very proud of people. Hard working people,” said Augustine Fils-Aime, a nurse at Mount Sinai in Manhattan who has worked in the U.S. for more than 25 years and is a first-generation Haitian immigrant. “While our family are now citizens, we have friends who aren’t and are terrified of what the future holds for them. These are families who own their own homes, who have children who are 6 or 7 years old and are American-born citizens who have never even been to Haiti … It is clear to me that the lives of innocent Haitian families do not matter to this administration. All I can say is that it’s blatant racism.”
“This is an attack on Black people. This is an attack on minorities all around this country,” added Senator Leroy Comrie.
ICE watch
Gerard Cadet, vice chair and a founding member of Little Haiti BK and longtime SEIU 1199 union organizer, was among many who confirmed ICE agent sightings in Brooklyn neighborhoods near Church Avenue and Kings Highway last week. Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, Councilmember Farah Louis, and Assemblymember Monique Chandler-Waterman, called an emergency meeting to raise awareness about covert ICE agents lurking in black SUVs.
“On the morning of Wednesday, July 22, 2026, we received reports that several U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were spotted near the gas station on Church Ave. and E. 59th near Kings Highway,” said Chandler-Waterman in a statement. “Council Member Farah Louis [and I] went to the scene and according to what was observed and communicated by community members, no one was detained. We thank our community members for alerting us and staying vigilant during this time.”
In addition to giving updates about TPS and ICE to their Haitian constituents, Brooklyn electeds have pooled resources to create a neighborhood ICE watch network and have launched an aggressive phone-banking campaign to support the S.4814 bill.
“[Haitians] are not disposable. The federal administration is seeking to strip protections from hundreds of thousands of Haitian TPS holders and force them to return to these dangerous conditions. Places like Little Haiti in my beloved Brooklyn are silent, quiet. The streets are bare,” said New York State Attorney General Letitia James at the press conference. “It’s cruel. It’s wrong. It’s embarrassing. It’s inconsistent with our values.”
James’s office recently launched its Office of Immigrant Trust (OIT), which investigates potential collusion between the state’s government employees and ICE or Border Patrol.
“New York State is not in the business of doing ICE’s dirty work,” said New York Immigration Coalition President & CEO Murad Awawdeh in a statement. “New Yorkers should have full confidence that State and local agencies are fully implementing recently enacted laws that limit collaboration with ICE and Border Patrol and expand data protections in interactions with government agencies.”
The NYC ICE Hotline can be reached at 229-304-8720. For legal support or questions, call the NYS Office of New Americans Immigration Hotline at 800-566-7636.
