"Everybody is calling me. My phone is blowing up today," said Marc Simon, a leader in the Triad's Haitian community. "They know I'm deeply involved in the community."
The ruling affects an estimated 350,000 Haitian immigrants and about 6,000 Syrian immigrants who have been living and working legally in the United States under TPS. Many Haitians fled escalating gang violence, Simon said, and fear returning to a country the U.S. State Department currently warns Americans not to visit due to crime, terrorism, kidnapping, unrest and limited health care.
"They are hardworking people. They are taxpayers. Business owners," Simon said. "They're going to have to close their businesses."
Immigration attorneys across the country condemned the ruling during a virtual press conference, saying it continues a pattern of decisions that undermine immigrant rights.
Simon and his brother founded the Triad Haitian Community Association in 2010 to support Haitian families in North Carolina. He said that support will be even more critical in the coming weeks.
"I feel bad that my community will be living in fear," he said.
The Department of Homeland Security's general counsel praised the ruling, saying in a statement: "The T in TPS stands for temporary, yet many of these designations became de facto amnesty. This is a win for the rule of law and common sense."
Supreme Court mandates typically take effect 32 days after a decision unless the Court orders otherwise.
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