NYC Mayor Mamdani asks Trump to restore TPS program as Haitian city employees forced from jobs

Josephine Stratman, New York Daily News on Aug 10, 2026

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NEW YORK — New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Monday he has asked President Donald Trump to restore protected status to Haitians after City Hall was forced to identify and dismiss city employees living in the country under now-terminated federal temporary protected status.

“I spoke with the president and made it very clear that this is something of immense importance to this city, to our economy, and to the welfare of all those who call the city home,” Mamdani said at a Monday press conference. “And also that the president is the only person that has the authority to extend TPS or to grant the deferred enforcement departure.”

Dozens of city workers who formerly had TPS received notice of their termination after the Supreme Court upheld the Trump administration’s move to revoke the status for Haitians, whose legal work permits expired July 24. Mamdani late Friday said the White House directed City Hall “to review the work authorization of Haitian TPS holders and separate from any employees who have not established alternative paths to legal work.”

Mamdani said Monday he had no choice but to comply with the new federal law:

“We are only taking the actions that we are forced to take when it comes to what we want to see in this city and in this country,” he said.

The mayor explained that the city determined that if it waited longer to lay off those workers, that it could backfire and ultimately hurt their ability to stay in the city.

Trump has been working to end the TPS program, and he has eliminated the status for all but a few remaining countries, leaving over a million people across the country stripped of their legal status and facing an uncertain future.

For Haitians in New York who lost status, this means either proceeding as an undocumented immigrant, scraping together a different legal status or returning to the island — where gang domination has thrown much of the country, including its capital city, into instability and violence.

The U.S. Department of State has warned Americans to avoid travel to the country, citing armed conflict and the risks of kidnappings and other violent crimes.

“For us in this moment to tell Haitian New Yorkers who have made the city their life for years that they have to go back to that. It is terrifying to imagine what might be waiting for them,” Mamdani said.

Around 350,000 Haitians and roughly 3,000 Syrians nationwide are enrolled in TPS, which has allowed them to work in the United States while their home countries faced humanitarian emergencies.

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