Mamdani urges Trump to extend TPS for Haitians, citing their importance to the economy

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is calling on President Trump directly to restore Temporary Protected Status for Haitian nationals, pointing to the role Haitians play in the city’s economy and its broader welfare. The Trump administration’s decision to halt TPS for more than 300,000 Haitians has rippled through communities across the country.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Mamdani said he told the president plainly that the issue is of immense importance to the city, its economy, and everyone who calls it home. He also stressed that the president is the only person with the authority to extend TPS or grant deferred enforcement departure.

The stakes are already concrete in New York. After the Supreme Court’s decision in June, dozens of city workers protected under TPS learned they were losing their jobs. Their legal work permits expired on July 24. Mamdani said the White House had directed City Hall to review the work authorization of Haitian TPS holders and separate those who had not established another legal path to work.

Mamdani said the city could not defy the newly established federal law, and warned that waiting to act could create a longer-term problem for the very workers involved. He framed the layoffs as actions the city was forced to take, not ones it wanted.

Around the country, Haitians who lost status have faced new hardships. In Ohio, people leaving immigration appointments reportedly walked out wearing ankle monitors, a move critics described as modern-day shackling. In Miami, a Haitian business owner who voted for Trump in 2024 told CBS Evening News that he stood to lose two businesses and that his entire management staff had left.

Ending TPS has been a hallmark of the administration’s immigration agenda, with Haitians a repeated target. Only seven countries currently hold active TPS, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Somalia, Sudan, Ukraine, and Venezuela. The State Department has warned Americans not to travel to Haiti, which remains gripped by violence and instability.

For Mamdani, the human cost is the heart of the matter. Telling Haitian New Yorkers who have built their lives in the city for years that they must return to that danger, he said, is terrifying to imagine.