Within just hours of the Supreme Court stripping 330,000 Haitian immigrants of their Temporary Protective Status immigration status, 1199 President Yvonne Armstrong had assembled New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, Attorney General Letitia James, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, as well as several other elected officials at the union's headquarters to denounce the high court's ruling as racist and immoral.
Racist comments that President Trump has made about immigrants surfaced in the Supreme Court's deliberation but were dismissed by the majority as not being overtly racist.
“They’re poisoning the blood of our country. That’s what they’ve done. They poison — mental institutions and prisons all over the world. Not just in South America," Trump told a New Hampshire rally in 2023. "Not just the three or four countries that we think about. But all over the world they’re coming into our country — from Africa, from Asia, all over the world. They’re pouring into our country.”
The six to three ruling also included the revocation of TPS for 6,000 Syrians.
The State Department advises Americans not to travel to both Syria and Haiti "due to significant security risks."
The SCOTUS decision also has major implications for over one million US residents from 15 other countries that were granted temporary residency under the 1990 law that extended TPS status if your country of origin was mired in armed conflict, affected by a natural disaster or epidemic as well as any other extraordinary condition.
The other TPS countries include Venezuela, El Salvador, Ukraine, Honduras, Afghanistan, Nepal, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Syria, Burma, Nicaragua, Sudan, Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan, and Lebanon.
The court ruling does not take effect for 32 days and "barring any further district court orders," according to the International Refugee Assistance Program.
"The Supreme Court’s ruling to revoke Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 330,000 Haitians and Syrian refugees is an appalling decision and a moral failure," Armstrong told reporters. "It will have devastating consequences for hundreds of thousands of law-abiding families and the neighborhoods in which they live. As a union of healthcare workers, we know how vital immigrants are to our workforce and communities."
Armstrong continued. "Nursing home residents will lose their aides, homecare clients will lose their caregivers, hospital patients will lose trusted and experienced staff. Innocent children and families will be forced out of communities they have grown up in."
1199SEIU represents 450,000 workers in New York State, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland/DC, and Florida.
"The vilification of immigrants is one of the oldest tricks in the authoritarian playbook," Armstrong said. "1199SEIU stands committed to fighting these injustices—which pit working people against each other and harm all of us—and will continue to organize in defense of our families and neighbors, for our constitutional rights, and in solidarity with immigrant communities."
"Our labor union represents 190,000 building service workers along the East Coast from Miami to Boston and D.C. to New York. This includes 90,000 New Yorkers—thousands of TPS holders including many from Haiti who clean our airports, maintain and secure our buildings and make untold contributions to our state and nation," Roxanne Rivera, an assistant to the president of 32BJ SEIU told reporters. "I join partners today to express outrage and grief at the Supreme Court decision giving the Trump administration unchecked power to end the lives of TPS recipients. Over 100,000 are TPS holders."
"Today, hundreds of thousands of individuals woke up with this dread, this fear in their hearts because their rights are being abandoned by the Trump administration and the Supreme Court of the United States," Gov. Hochul said. "Temporary Protected Status has long been a vehicle to protect people who are living in war-torn countries, torn with political strife, those where there's starvation and violence, and our Statue of Liberty and our harbor has always been the place people come for support legally."
Hochul noted the essential role played by Haitians in New York State's healthcare workforce taking "care of our elderly, sometimes our children, people with disabilities, senior citizens. They're performing God's work here in New York State, and I'm grateful for them.”
Hochul recounted steps Albany has taken to rein in federal immigration officers after the murders of Renee Good and Alexi Pereti in Minneapolis and thousands of controversial abductions that have included U.S. citizens, green card holders and immigrants in the country legally.
“We're banning masks for immigration enforcers as well as anyone who wears a badge. We should know who you are. You should not be able to go into our communities, intimidate, threaten and create fear," Hochul said. "We're not sitting on the sidelines. That's my message here today. This is New York. We fight back. We defend our people. And for those who think they can come here and just tell us that's going to be a different way than it is, you have to get through us first.”
“The Supreme Court just sparked one of the largest attacks on immigrants in modern American history," Mayor Mamdani said in a statement. "In one fell swoop, thousands of Haitians and Syrians now risk losing the right to live and work in the country they call home."
Mayor Mamdani continued. “These are people who fled earthquakes, famine, war and political violence," Mayor Mamdani said in a statement. "People who came to this country looking for freedom, safety and democracy. They built lives here. They raised families here. They opened small businesses, attended church and mosque, and looked after their neighbors. America is home."
Mamdani continued. “This decision will cause enormous pain across the five boroughs. Here in New York, it falls hardest on our Haitian community, one of the largest in the country, alongside Syrian families. 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."
At the emergency press conference at 1199SEIU Mayor Mamdani directed New Yorkers who were concerned about their status to reach out to The Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs for additional information and resources.
"If you have questions about your status or need legal assistance, call the MOIA Immigration Legal Support Hotline at 800-354-0365. Free and confidential help is available," Mamdani said. “You will not face this cruelty alone. This administration will stand alongside immigrant New Yorkers today, tomorrow, and every day that follows.”
