Haitians in fear of losing Temporary Protected Status meet with supporters at North Miami City Hall
NORTH MIAMI, Fla. — Farrah Larrieux, who was born in Haiti, has been living in the U.S. for two decades with Temporary Protected Status that remained in limbo even after a federal judge sided with about 350,000 others like her.
Larrieux, who co-founded the Miramar Haitian-American Residents and Business Owners Organizations, was among the activists who met on Tuesday at the North Miami City Hall.
“I took a deep breath, but it is temporary, and we have a lot more work to do,” Larrieux said about U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes’s ruling that President Donald Trump’s administration’s termination of TPS for Haitians on Tuesday “shall be null, void, and of no legal effect.”
Then on Tuesday night in the heart of Little Haiti, over 100 people gathered for a vigil in support of TPS recipients whose future is on the line.
“We’re doing a vigil to make sure that our voices are heard,” said North Miami Councilwoman Mary Estime-Irvin. “That this administration will reconsider, finding a more permanent way for people that come here that are productive.”
In an 83-page opinion, Reyes wrote that it was “substantially likely” that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem decided to end TPS for Haitians because of “hostility to nonwhite immigrants.”
North Miami Mayor Alix Desulme said he stands “firmly” with Haitian migrants and added that Reyes’s ruling “affirms the importance of compassion, humanity, and fairness in our immigration policies.”
Miami-Dade County Commissioner Marleine Bastien, a Haitian American, and Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava also celebrated Reyes’s ruling.
“For the first time in months, people slept,” Bastien said about the anguish that many felt about the risk of deportation as Haiti continues to struggle with gang violence.
Archbishop of Miami Thomas Wenski was not at the meeting at North Miami City Hall, but he has long advocated for Haitians in South Florida and breathed a sigh of relief after the ruling.
Wenski has been concerned about the safety of about 100 nurses and home health aides who work under the Catholic Charities with TPS. He is among the advocates who know the fight is far from over.
“Supreme Court, here we come,” Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant Department of Homeland Security secretary, wrote on X, and added that Reyes was “an activist judge legislating from the bench.”
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