High court ruling adds uncertainty, local experts say

In Rochester, immigrant advocacy and refugee service organizations say the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision on Temporary Protected Status has added to a broader uncertainty around the Trump administration’s immigration policies. 

In late June, the court decided that the Trump administration could end Temporary Protected Status for Syrian and Haitian immigrants, exposing refugees fleeing unstable home countries to deportation. 

The court ruled that the federal law establishing the TPS program generally bars courts from reviewing the determinations by then-Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem to end the TPS designations for Haiti and Syria. The statute states there is “no judicial review of any determination … with respect to the designation, or termination or extension of a designation, of a foreign state under this subsection.”

The TPS program offers temporary protection from deportation for legal residents who are nationals of countries dealing with high crime, natural disasters, war, or other forms of strife that make returning to their country of origin unsafe.

Countries are listed on the TPS list for periods of six to 18 months by the Department of Homeland Security, pending review and potential extensions of their TPS status. Despite having the ability to extend a country’s TPS designation beyond the initial six to 18 months, Noem revoked TPS for every country up for review during her time in office. (Noem was fired by President Donald Trump in March.)

Even before the ruling, policy changes and surges in enforcement made options for refugees harder to navigate.

“We don’t know what the status of clients is going to be from week to week, which, of course, makes it hard to help them navigate the bureaucracy and, you know, plan for their lives here,” says Grant Marthinsen, chairperson of Refugees Helping Refugees, who spoke with the Beacon before the Supreme Court ruling on June 25. 

“That kind of (sword of) Damocles is hanging over folks and just makes it harder for them to get stuff done,” he adds.

The case involved a November 2025 decision by Noem revoking TPS status for Haitian and Syrian refugees. It was followed by orders from U.S. District Court judges in Washington and New York halting deportations of Haitian and Syrian refugees, respectively.

The orders, which went into effect in November 2025 for Syrians and February 2026 for Haitians, prompted an emergency appeal from DHS, which was granted by the Supreme Court.

“Before, during and after (the TPS case), we’ve had a big influx of employers trying to get a handle on what options are here for folks in TPS status, and trying to say, ‘OK, it looks like they’re terminating these programs. This is a really critical employee, what can we do?’” says Elizabeth Lindhome, a Buffalo-based immigration attorney with Harter Secrest & Emery. “Sometimes I have good answers. Sometimes I don’t,”

She says employers look to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for information on compliance with regulations for hiring migrant workers, including those residing under TPS. 

“Every Friday (USCIS is) posting a new blog post saying, ‘the work authorization for employees in this category expires on next Friday,’ and every Friday at sometime in the middle of the day, they say, ‘it expires next Friday,’” says Lindhome, describing how employers are updated.

“What this means from a practical standpoint for employees and employers is they have to expect that they’re going to lose their job every Friday,” she adds. “Employers are expecting they’re going to have to terminate somebody every Friday. … It’s just this microcosm of that uncertainty which is baked into this while everyone is trying so hard to follow the rules, and literally every week the rules keep changing.” 

Marthinsen says some 90-day resettlement organizations have had to close their doors due to loss of funding from the Office of Refugee Resettlement. Typically, resettlement organizations receive funding from ORR to assist refugees during their first three months in the United States.

Organizations with more diverse sources of funding, like RHR, have been able to weather the storm but are now dealing with an influx of clients from organizations that have had to reduce operations due to Trump administration funding cuts.

RHR describes itself as a refugee services organization and provides assistance to refugees after their initial 90-day resettlement with resources from a more diverse array of funders.

ORR funding cuts and large caseloads have exacerbated the uncertainty over rapidly changing immigration policy.

“We’re not talking about closing, but can you pay for everybody’s position without ORR or private support from someone else? Maybe not. So, yeah, the uncertainty is certainly difficult for continued operations, even though there’s fewer organizations doing the work already,” says Marthinsen.

Syria was listed under TPS beginning in March 2012, when the country descended into a 14-year civil war in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. Haiti was given TPS status in August 2024 in the midst of gang violence that had engulfed the country.

Though the situation in Syria has largely stabilized since the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, conditions are still dangerous. Meanwhile, the Haitian crisis is ongoing with thousands reported dead or missing.

According to statistics compiled by the New York Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance in 2025, Monroe County is among the top three resettlement counties for refugees and Special Immigration Visas holders; in fiscal year 2025, 750 settled here. The two largest source countries for those migrants are Syria and Afghanistan. Afghanistan, which has a large refugee community in Rochester, is among more than a dozen other countries expected to be impacted by the Supreme Court’s ruling on TPS.

For refugees fleeing dangerous situations in their home countries, the TPS program offered an avenue to stay in the country without fear of deportation while pursuing a path to legal residency. 

“It’s kind of served as a catch-all safety net,” says Lindhome. “ I can see the argument, it’s been overused, but to cut the net without lowering a ladder is kind of creating more problems than solutions from a human perspective.”

Many of the Afghan migrants are SIV holders. These visas were issued to those who assisted the U.S. in the 20-year war in Afghanistan. For these Afghans, viewed by the ruling Taliban government as collaborators with the American occupation, returning to their home country could have deadly consequences. Programs assisting Afghan immigrants hoping to settle in the U.S. with SIVs, like the Biden-era Operation Allies Welcome and its continuation program Operation Enduring Welcome, saw major cuts by the Trump administration last year.

“Sending people back to Haiti, Syria or Afghanistan is just unconscionable,” says Marthinsen. “America ought to live up to its commitments, particularly when it comes to the Afghans that served as translators for the military. The idea that you’d send those people back is embarrassing if you’re supposedly a patriot.”

In the meantime, Marthinsen and refugee advocates recommend working with local immigrants in the area to support them.

“Get involved in issues around migration, whether that is donating or volunteering to any of the groups left doing this work,” he says. “There are folks that are scared to go outside. … You don’t need to wait for someone to tell you to do it; you can find people and help them.”

David Wazana is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer and a member of the Oasis Project’s second cohort. 

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