Despite the government’s vow to appeal the ruling, the temporary reprieve was welcome news for officials and others who work with Massachusetts’ large Haitian population.
“This ruling is important for Haitian families here. It also protects against a harmful disruption to the Massachusetts’ economy, as Haitian TPS holders are an integral part of our workforce, particularly in the health care sector,” Governor Maura Healey said in a statement. ” If President Trump had his way, thousands of nurses, home health aides, and other essential employees would not have been able to work tomorrow, and patients and families who are dependent on caregivers would have suffered.”
US District Judge Ana Reyes’s ruling came on the night before Temporary Protected Status, which allows immigrants from a country in crisis to live and work in the US, was set to expire on Tuesday. The protections for Haiti had been in place since a devastating earthquake in 2010.
Reyes called for a pause in the termination of TPS while a lawsuit challenging it moves forward. “During the stay, the termination shall be null, void, and of no legal effect,” Reyes wrote.
Reyes said in an accompanying 83-page opinion that plaintiffs were likely to prevail on the merits of the case, and that she found it “substantially likely” that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem preordained her termination decision because of “hostility to nonwhite immigrants.”
Leaders in the state’s Haitian community welcomed the ruling.
“I feel so moved,” Pastor Dieufort “Keke” Fleurissaint, a Haitian community leader in Greater Boston, said in a brief telephone call. “It’s a big relief for many families.”
Geralde Gabeau, chief executive of the Immigrant Family Services Institute in Mattapan, said many Haitians had been told not to show up for work Tuesday.
Monday night, she was hopeful the court’s decision would change that looming threat.
“People can sleep peacefully tonight,” she said. “Definitely a big relief and hope for a better future.”
Senator Edward J. Markey issued a statement saying the ruling should bolster the hope of the nation’s roughly 350,000 TPS Haitians.
“Haitian TPS holders are deeply rooted in our Massachusetts communities — from Mattapan to Brockton. They are our friends, our family members, our neighbors, our colleagues,” the senator said.
The ACLU of Massachusetts also hailed the ruling as “the right decision.”
If the temporary protection for Haitians were to end, an estimated 45,000 people would be stripped of their ability to work. Many fear being sent back to a country in violent chaos, one that some of them have not visited for decades.
“I’m not free,” said one Haitian named Bruno, who asked to be identified by only his first name as he fears being targeted by immigration authorities. “I don’t have a legal status.”
Bruno, 60, has called the United States home for almost 17 years, having fled Port-au-Prince, where he ran a grocery store, after the earthquake “wiped out” everything he had. Speaking in Haitian Creole through an interpreter during a recent phone interview with the Globe, Bruno said he is grateful for the opportunities the US has afforded him and his family.
“I love this country,” he said.
Margarette Woods of Somerville, waved a Haitian flag while wearing a hat with both US and Haitian colors at a Haitian flag festival at Somerville City Hall last year.Josh Reynolds for The Boston Globe
Until recently, he drove a bus for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, but his boss told him that without legal status, he would not be able to work. He has a mortgage on a home in Brockton and three sons, one of whom is studying engineering at UMass Dartmouth, while the youngest is still in high school. Bruno applied for asylum but was denied.
“I feel extremely devastated,” he said.
Another local Haitian with temporary status who worked as an MBTA bus driver had similar concerns. She spoke before the judge’s ruling on the condition of anonymity as she is afraid she will be targeted by immigration authorities.
“It’s like I’m dead, I’m dead,” she said in between sobs during a phone interview in English. “Because I have no one.”
The woman, a 57-year-old who owns a home in Stoughton, said her 20-year-old son, a security guard who wishes to become an electrician, is an American citizen and has never been to Haiti.
She raised him as a single mother after his father died from illness when he was 4. She fled Haiti 24 years ago because of the violence she was subjected to, which continues today; her nephew was abducted and murdered by gangs last week. Gangs in the nation’s capital of Port-au-Prince had burned down her home.
One woman, a 32-year-old Mattapan resident who was nearly shot while living in Haiti, has a 2-year-old daughter here who is an American citizen. She works as a certified nursing assistant for mentally disabled youth.
She has not considered applying for asylum because she is afraid of being detained at the courthouse, should the hearing not go her way.
Since Trump first announced he would end temporary protection for Haitians, some advocates describe the mood in Greater Boston’s Haitian diaspora, the third-largest in the country, as a collective panic attack.
“To a large degree, the Haitian community feels under assault,” said Sarang Sekhavat, chief of staff for the Massachusetts Immigrant & Refugee Advocacy Coalition.
Temporary status holders, Sekhavat said, “are people who have done everything the right way,” which means the government has their information, including home addresses.
Boston City Councilor Ruthzee Louijeune, a Haitian American, called the Trump administration’s decision to revoke temporary status reckless, adding that the move was rooted in xenophobia and racism.
“It’s bigoted, it’s terrible,” she said.
But she was heartened by the judge’s ruling Monday.
“We are relieved for now and breathing a bit easier. As we’ve said time and time again, ending TPS would be devastating for Haitian families and a serious blow to Boston’s economy,” Louijeune said in a statement. “The judge recognized what our communities have been living every day: the vital contributions TPS holders make through the billions of dollars they pay in taxes and the essential work they do.”
Jessica Bartlett and Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Material from the Associated Press was used.
The online version of this article has been updated to more accurately reflect the number of Haitian TPS holders in the country.
Danny McDonald can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @Danny__McDonald. Tonya Alanez can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @talanez.
