New York Attorney General Letitia James co-led a coalition of 18 other attorneys general in filing an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court on April 13, 2026, urging the Court to uphold lower court orders that have postponed the federal government's termination of Temporary Protected Status for immigrants from Haiti and Syria.
The underlying dispute centers on the Trump administration's 2025 decision to terminate TPS for Haiti, Syria, and several other countries. TPS has been extended to Haitian immigrants since 2010 and to Syrian immigrants since 2012. Nationwide, approximately 350,000 Haitians and more than 6,000 Syrians currently hold TPS. New York alone is home to at least 5,400 Haitian TPS holders in New York City.
The coalition's brief argues that terminating TPS would force vulnerable immigrants to either remain in the United States without secure legal status or return to conditions the federal government itself has designated as extremely dangerous. The State Department warns Americans not to travel to Haiti or Syria due to risks of violence, terrorism, civil unrest, and limited health care — the same conditions that originally prompted TPS designations for those countries.
The brief also presses economic and public-health arguments. Haitian TPS holders contribute $3.4 billion annually to the U.S. economy, according to the coalition, while Syrian TPS holders contribute $165 million annually and own businesses at more than triple the rate of U.S.-born citizens. Tens of thousands of Haitian TPS holders work in health care, including as home health aides in New York. The coalition argues that terminating TPS would cause many holders to lose health insurance, raise state health care costs, and make TPS holders less willing to report crimes or serve as witnesses, increasing public safety risks.
Attorney General James argued that the administration's attempts to cancel TPS are illegal and would tear families apart, including by forcing TPS holder parents to choose between leaving U.S.-citizen children behind and taking them to dangerous and unfamiliar countries.
The attorneys general of California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont, and Washington, and the District of Columbia joined the brief. This is at least the fifth amicus filing Attorney General James has led or co-led in defense of TPS since July 2025, spanning proceedings in the Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, and covering Haitian, Venezuelan, Honduran, Nicaraguan, and Nepali TPS holders.