32BJ OF THE SERVICE EMPLOYEES INTERNATIONAL UNION

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, February 3, 2026

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Frank Soults 860-471-5692 fsoults@seiu32bj.org

Service Workers Union Applauds Order Blocking Ending of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians

NEW YORK — On Monday evening, Judge Ana C. Reyes of the Federal District Court in Washington granted a motion to protect some 350,000 Haitians from the Trump administration’s intention to terminate their legal right to live and work in the United States at midnight. The judge’s ruling temporarily stops the Department of Homeland Security from canceling the Haitians’ receipt of Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a designation that allows nationals from specific countries to stay in the U.S. when their home countries are too dangerous to return to. 

The following statement may be credited to Manny Pastreich, President of 32BJ SEIU, the largest property service workers union in the country. With over 185,000 members across the East Coast, 32BJ is also one of the nation’s largest labor unions with a majority-immigrant membership. 

“We applaud Judge Reyes for her thorough and extremely forceful rejection of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s attempt to end TPS for hundreds of thousands of Haitians, including many hundreds of our union’s members. Although we fully expect the Trump administration to appeal the ruling, we are relieved by this reprieve and renewed in our determination to continue fighting against all unjust TPS terminations. Our union was among the plaintiffs that successfully stopped DHS from ending Haitian TPS back in August, when we argued that a clear racial animus towards Black immigrants motivates this administration’s improper if not illegal actions. Even the current U.S. State Department has officially found that Haiti is too unsafe to visit, and Judge Reyes repeatedly notes that Secretary Noem completely failed to follow the law’s requirements to evaluate conditions in the home country before terminating TPS.

“As the decision also makes clear, ending TPS for Haiti would also cause calamity in the U.S. In Florida, Massachusetts, New York and elsewhere, our Haitian TPS members load luggage at airports, keep downtown buildings safe, and perform many other essential jobs every day. We stand with all TPS recipients, whatever their nation of origin, and call on Congress to support Representative Ayanna Pressley’s discharge petition of a bill that would protect Haitian TPS, and then to engage with reform that creates a path to citizenship for TPS recipients and immigrants of all statuses, to reinvigorate our economy, heal our nation, and restore our highest values.”