WASHINGTON, D.C. – Yesterday, the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Trump Administration’s efforts to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian and Syrian nationals. TPS is a humanitarian immigration designation that allows nationals of a country experiencing armed conflict, environmental disaster, or other extraordinary conditions to live and work legally in the U.S. without being deported.
U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) issued the following statement:
“The Administration will use the Supreme Court’s inhumane TPS decision to send thousands of law-abiding immigrants back to unstable and dangerous home countries. Congress must act to rectify the error.”
Washington state is home to nearly 3,300 people of Haitian ethnicity according to 2020 census data, including a large community of about 500 people in Spokane. Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown has urged the federal government to extend TPS for Haitians. Across Washington state, TPS protects approximately 18,065 people from deportation or removal. Nationwide, 330,735 Haitian nationals and 3,860 Syrian nationals have TPS.
In November 2025, then-Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem issued a decision to terminate Haiti’s TPS designation. Sen. Cantwell joined her Senate Democratic colleagues in sending a letter to Noem demanding that she reverse the directive. In April, Sen. Cantwell also signed an amicus brief challenging the Trump administration’s termination of TPS for immigrants from Haiti and Syria.