Elected officials from Brooklyn and immigration advocates slammed the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on Friday which allowed the Trump Administration to revoke parole status for immigrants from Haiti.
The Supreme Court paused a decision by a lower court judge in the case Noem vs Svitlana Doe et al., which blocked the Trump Administration’s plan to end the humanitarian parole program put in place by the Biden Administration. The decision by the court gives the Trump Administration the green light to end the parole program, which allowed immigrants from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti to get legal status and work permits in the U.S.. Each immigrant who was granted parole was assessed on a case-by-case basis by the United States Customs and Immigration Services (USCIS), according to White & Associates.
There are 210,000 Haitian immigrants in the U.S. who have received humanitarian parole, according to the National Foundation for American Policy. About 163,000 Haitian immigrants live in the New York City metropolitan area, according to a 2023 report from the Migration Policy Institute. In Brooklyn, many live in the Flatbush area, dubbed as "Little Haiti."
City Council Member Farah Louis, whose district covers Flatbush, said the Supreme Court’s decision was wrong.
Louis called it “a devastating blow to families, communities, and the fundamental values that define America.” She vowed to “join forces with allies to organize, advocate, and take action to ensure that our city remains a sanctuary for all who seek safety and opportunity within our borders.”
U.S. Representative Yvette Clarke said in a statement: “With this decision, America has betrayed and backstabbed more than 500,000 children, women, and men. Let me be clear: that is a sin that cannot and will not be forgiven. Tragically, the Trump Administration is capable of only hate.”
Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees, an advocacy organization based in Flatbush that helps Haitian refugees, noted that “Most people who have entered through [humanitarian parole] are eligible for other forms of family based and humanitarian relief that USCIS is not processing applications for in a just and timely manner.”
For example, immigrants who have applied for asylum status are allowed to legally stay in the U.S. while their case is being vetted, according to the American Immigration Council.
“We call on Congress to act urgently and provide oversight so that USCIS processes applications that people rightfully qualify for by law,” Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees said in a statement. “To be clear, our communities deserve more than temporary relief—we demand permanent protections and the right to live freely, safely and with dignity. We will continue to fight for nothing less."
New York Immigration Coalition President and CEO Murad Awawdeh said in a statement that "while New York State can’t stop the administration from revoking these humanitarian programs, it can pass the New York For All Act, Access to Representation Act and the BUILD Act to make clear that our state will not be complicit in Trump's horrific anti-immigrant agenda."
The New York For All Act "would prohibit the use of government resources for immigration enforcement, restrict the disclosure of sensitive information to ICE and CBP, prohibit 287(g) agreements, and make clear that ICE cannot access non-public areas of government property without a judicial warrant," according to the New York Civil Liberties Union. The Access to Representation Act and BUILD Act would give non-citizens "a right to universal representation" in immigration-related legal proceedings and fund those services.
Noem vs Svitlana Doe et al., is still working its way through the courts. ScotusBlog reported that the ruling is moving through the First Circuit Court of Appeals and may go back up to the Supreme Court.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, writing in her dissenting opinion to the Supreme Court’s decision, said that “social and economic chaos will ensue if that many noncitizen parolees are suddenly and summarily are [placed in custody]."
