For starters, the overwhelming majority of immigrants who have TPS have abided by the law and are productive members of our society. We think, in particular, of the many Haitian immigrants who work in the city’s healthcare industry, providing comfort and care to thousands of people who cannot care for themselves.
Immigrants with TPS have settled in this country and made it their home. They have raised families and developed relationships here. They contribute to their communities in service and in tax dollars. Hundreds of them even work in the halls of state and local government contributing to our democracy and keeping vital services running.
And yet, the Trump administration’s TPS crackdown is forcing the state and local governments to potentially terminate thousands of people. How is that fair? How is that responsible?
Gov. Kathy Hochul sought to remind the Trump administration of this Monday in a letter sent to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. Mayor Zohran Mamdani said last week he made a personal appeal to President Trump to halt his TPS crackdown targeting Haitian immigrants.
The reasons Hochul and Mamdani offered were the same: The crackdown is a harmful policy that would upend the lives of immigrant families, causing economic ruin and turmoil. It would essentially dash “the American dream” that brought immigrants to the U.S. and to New York in the first place, and plunge them into an American nightmare.
The Trump administration refuses to give in. A Homeland Security spokesperson told amNewYork that TPS “has been allowed to function as a de facto amnesty program despite Congress never intending it to be permanent.”
Decades of Congressional inaction on immigration reform, however, are not the responsibility of immigrants protected by TPS. It is not their fault; it is not their responsibility. The Trump administration cannot and must not punish thousands of good, law-abiding people for the shortcomings of elected officials.
The regime’s actions are the height of hypocrisy. Most of its immigration crackdown has been focused, allegedly, on “the worst of the worst,” as Trump border czar Tom Homan has often said. Yet the crackdown has been defined not only by ICE agents detaining thousands of people without criminal records, but also seeking to strip legal status from law-abiding immigrants who have jobs, families and homes here in America.
It’s time for the Trump administration to listen to New York and to back down. There is no need to strip TPS at this time. Live and let live.
And if they cannot listen, then New York’s elected officials, Democrats and Republicans alike, must pursue legislation in Congress and legal challenges in the courts to put a stop to this nonsense.