Haitian and Syrian immigrants living in Connecticut under a Temporary Protected Status (TPS) are now rushing to consult with immigration advocates following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling issued Thursday which gives the federal government the go-ahead to begin deportations.
Guy Bocicaut, a Norwalk resident who is a naturalized citizen with Haitian ancestry, said he isn’t surprised by the ruling.
“Given the makeup of the Supreme Court, the relationship with the current administration, not at all,” Bocicaut said. “As a matter of fact, when it comes to anything in the United States that we used to take for granted; we thought that was impossible. Nothing is impossible.”
TPS, in existence since 1990, allows immigrants who otherwise cannot be deported or returned back to their home countries due to civil unrest, conflict or disasters, a chance to live and work legally in the United States.
Bocicaut and others, including Maggie Mitchell Salem, the executive director of Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services (IRIS), say they’re now figuring out their next steps, from continued advocacy at the state level, to urging Congress to grant Haitians and Syrians permanent legal statuses.
Salem says she hopes Republican lawmakers who otherwise are in lockstep with Trump administration immigration policies, will break ranks over TPS due to the crucial role immigrants play in the labor force.
“It could gain some momentum, because you have Republican governors like the Republican governor of Ohio, who has openly said this is going to hurt Ohio,” Salem said.
But while Salem said she remains optimistic that a combination of legislative action and grassroots support for TPS holders can result in sustained victories for those populations, Salem was realistic about the immediate future.
“Now, effective immediately, they could be picked up for deportation, and ICE has a new $70 billion expansion of its budget, and, and that could mean stepped up ICE enforcement in communities across the country, including in Connecticut, where we've already seen increases in enforcement in New London, in Danbury, in Hartford, in New Haven,” Salem said.
The federal government has sought to deport TPS holders since the beginning of Trump’s second non-consecutive term, but a series of back and forth lawsuits, legal injunctions and overall uncertainty has weighed heavily on the Haitian community, according to previous reporting by Connecticut Public.
The Supreme Court’s decision has now exhausted hopes by immigration advocates for a favorable legal resolution, which impacts around 350,000 Haitians with TPS status across the country.
Haitians are not the only population facing an uncertain future. The estimated 6,000 Syrians with TPS in the United States are also facing deportation.
While Salem and the TPS holders her organization services, are bracing for stepped up deportations, Connecticut’s federal delegation issued statements calling on the Trump administration to drop its initiatives or for their Republican colleagues to vote on granting them immigration statuses.
In a statement, Democratic Sen.Chris Murphy criticized the decision. “Today’s decision is devastating for thousands of our neighbors who have lived and worked in our communities for years and just had the rug pulled out from under them,” Murphy said. “Now that the Supreme Court has rubber stamped the racist policies of Donald Trump and Stephen Miller, Congress must immediately act to give these families a pathway to a permanent immigration status.”
As federal elected officials figure out their responses, Bocicaut, who runs a successful real estate business, and helps Haitian Americans with passport applications, now wonders if his future is in question.
“We cannot say, ‘could this have been me? It’s ‘will that be me in the next few years,” Bocicaut said.
Bocicaut said he remembers hearing President Donald Trump demonizing Haitians with racist rhetoric, from falsely claiming they eat pets, to constantly attacking Haitian TPS holders.
But Bocicaut has consistently remained guardedly optimistic, even in the face of what was just days ago, a worst case scenario.
“We just hit the bottom,” Bocicaut said. “I think we will turn around, but to do that, it will take the participation and engagement of every decent human being living in this country, and it's going to be a real fight.”
