Tag: Temporary Protective Status

JHISN Newsletter 07/26/2025

Posted on July 26, 2025 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends,

Like many of you, we find ourselves at risk of being overwhelmed every week, sometimes daily, by immigration news. Much of it bad and some of it almost unbelievable. We continue to publish our monthly newsletter with a local focus whenever we can—looking at both the forces aligning against immigrant lives, and those allied with solidarity, resistance, and community-based care. None of it makes any sense without you, our readers, taking this news and acting when and where you can, for immigrant justice and power. Thank you for continuing to read the newsletter—and for using it as a tool in our common struggle.

Today’s issue takes on systematic wage theft—disproportionately experienced by immigrant workers—while highlighting how common it is in our own neighborhood. The newsletter also returns to the urgent issue of the Trump regime’s attempts to cancel Temporary Protective Status (TPS) for hundreds of thousands of legal immigrant US residents, including many in the Nepali community here in Queens.  

Newsletter highlights:
  1. Wage theft is all around us
  2. Temporary Protective Status (TPS) under assault: an update

1. Wage Theft is All Around Us

Wage theft is rampant in industries that employ large numbers of immigrant workers. These include agriculture, building maintenance, garment assembly, hotel, restaurant and food service, construction, nursing homes, nail salons, warehouses and car washes. Inequality.org states the obvious: “Undocumented workers are particularly vulnerable to wage theft as they are often the least likely to report violations due to fear of retaliation, job loss, or exposure of their immigration status.” This has become an even more pressing consideration as the terror of the Trump regime’s mass deportation accelerates.

The Center for Popular Democracy reports that “An estimated 2.1 million New Yorkers are victims of wage theft annually, cheated out of a cumulative $3.2 billion in wages and benefits.” Wage theft among New York City’s 300,000 low-wage workers is reported to be roughly $18.4 million per week. The widespread nature of wage theft in the state and city can be visualized by clicking on Documented’s Wage Theft Monitor. The Monitor is based on state and federal data acquired through Freedom of Information requests. It records thousands of final wage theft settlements—large and small, in every neighborhood—including hundreds of findings against businesses in our area. 

Examples of wage theft in Queens alone seem endless:

  • In 2020, Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM) organized a large protest outside Sona Chaandi, one of the largest jewelry stores on 74th Street. Demonstrators accused the owners of sexual harassment, as well as wage theft. Nargis, an immigrant DRUM member and former employee, told the rally that she was harassed, paid $50 to $75 for 10 hour days, and forced to take care of the owner’s elderly parent without pay. The Documented Wage Theft Monitor shows that Sona Chaandi was eventually ordered to pay $65,000 to two unnamed workers.
  • Some local eating and drinking establishments with immigrant work forces have faced large wage theft settlements. El Picosito Bar on Roosevelt was ordered to pay $237,621 to 10 workers a few years back. La Boina Roja Steakhouse was recently ordered by the state to pay $221,130 to 11 workers, according to the Wage Theft Monitor. National chain restaurants are also implicated. For instance, Chipotle on Northern Boulevard was ordered to reimburse 85 workers in a wage theft case filed in 2023.
  • In 2022, Attorney General Letitia James announced a settlement of more than $90,000 in favor of several Astoria laundry workers. The Laundry Workers Center, which primarily represents immigrant women of color, did the initial investigation on the case and pushed it to the AG’s office.
  • That same year, James also won a $130,000 settlement for two building superintendents in Flushing who were paid no wages at all—the owners had decided that a rent-free apartment would serve as their only compensation.
  • Last year, Make the Road New York was instrumental in publicizing and filing a disturbing wage theft complaint by Ecuadorian migrants at a tobacco packaging factory in Queens. Workers assert that they were paid about $4 an hour, working in sweatshop conditions 10-13 hours a day, seven days a week.
  • This summer, Assemblymember Shekar Krishnan took the lead in trying to terminate lucrative city contracts handed out to Griffin’s Landscaping, a firm accused of repeated wage theft and other illegal behavior.

Unfortunately, many ripped-off immigrant workers never get a legal settlement, or any kind of justice. Even those bold enough to file complaints with state or federal authorities face an uphill struggle. They may win their cases, which often take years, and yet the employer stalls, refuses to pay the judgement, hides, or declares bankruptcy.

“Hildalyn Colón Hernández, deputy director of New Immigrant Community Empowerment, a New York-based worker advocacy organization, said, ‘Employers are operating with no consequences’….Colón Hernández added that her organization now trains its employees on how to investigate wage theft because it would take too long if they had to rely on federal or state investigators to recover back wages.”  —ProPublica, 8/22/23

WHAT CAN WE DO?

2. The Impact of TPS Changes for NY

“The law is very clear that once the TPS extension has been granted, it cannot be taken away en masse. This is the first time in the 35-year history of the TPS statute that anyone’s ever tried to do that.” –Ahilan Arulanantham, co-director, Center for Immigration Law and Policy, UCLA School of Law

The Brookings Institute warned that Trump’s campaign promises targeting immigrants “would have disproportionate impacts on U.S. cities and urban areas, given that most foreign-born individuals live and work in these places.” Among US counties with undocumented populations, Queens is ranked the sixth-largest and has over three TPS holders per 1,000 people. (With a population of about 2,250,000, that amounts to over 6,750 TPS holders.) The Trump regime, led by Stephen Miller’s hard-line propaganda, aims to abruptly end TPS status for hundreds of thousands of US residents, which disproportionately threatens people living here in Queens and NYC.  

About 40% of the migrants who arrived in NY in 2022-23 came from Venezuela under TPS protections. New York City has the second-largest TPS-eligible Haitian population in the nation, which comprises about 3% of the city’s population. Among other TPS recipients, New York City also has the largest Honduran population and, residing in both Woodside and Jackson Heights is the second-largest Nepali migrant population in the country. Around Flushing and Kew Gardens, there is a large population of Afghan immigrants in Queens. 

These groups combined comprise 87,000 TPS holders in New York state who are specifically under threat from the questionable legal actions spearheaded by the Trump administration to strip their legal authorization to remain and work in the US, making them all detainable and deportable. The inappropriately named One Big Beautiful Bill, which barely received enough votes to become law, supplements these attacks by requiring higher fees for individuals to submit forms necessary to file in court to fight against potential deportation. The Showcase of Nepalis in New York (NepYork) published the full details of these cost increases. NepYork also reported on a recent NJ event organized to discuss increased deportation threats and the imminent termination of TPS for Nepalese immigrants. 

“TPS is ending on August 5 [for Nepal], and thousands of lives are hanging by a thread. We organized this not just because the law is changing, but because our families are suffering silently. Many don’t know their rights. Many are scared. We have organized this event to help them find a way and let them know they are not alone.” Dr. Bishnu Maya Pariyar, Program Director at Hudson S.P.E.A.K.S.

Pushback against TPS terminations includes Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen’s SECURE Act, introduced last month along with 30 other senators. The bill would secure a pathway to permanent residency and is supported by numerous unions, CASA, the National TPS Alliance, and the National Network for Arab American Communities. Additionally, in February, the Dream and Promise Act was resubmitted—a bipartisan bill supported by nearly 200 representatives that would protect DACA recipients as well as TPS holders.  

On Monday, July 28, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards will hold a rally at 6:00 PM at Queens Borough Hall to support community members who are deeply affected by the terminations of Temporary Protected Status. Haitian-American City Councilmember Farah Louis has also spoken out against the efforts to end TPS. She notes that people fled their dangerous home countries, came here for a better life, they work for local businesses, and invest in the economy here—and now all that is about to be snatched away. Brad Lander, the NYC Comptroller, has published Protecting Our Neighbors, describing the humanitarian costs of cancelling TPS. His report also highlights the defunding by the Trump and Adams administrations of vital legal services used to protect over 1,800 children whose lives will be disrupted by this change.

Hundreds of thousands of TPS recipients, along with family members and supporters, await the outcome of the numerous challenges made in court by the National TPS Alliance, CASA, Haitian Americans United Inc., and the Haitian Evangelical Clergy Association as the clock ticks down towards deadlines that threaten to end their legal status. 

Country Designation Date Most Recent Action Expiration Date # Individuals
Afghanistan* May 20, 2022 Termination (5/13/25) July 14, 2025 11,700
Cameroon* June 7, 2022 Termination (6/4/25) August 4, 2025 5,200
Haiti* Jan. 21, 2010 Termination (7/1/25) Sept. 2, 2025 348,187
Honduras* Jan. 5, 1999 Termination (7/8/25) Sept. 8, 2025 72,000
Nicaragua* Jan. 5, 1999 Termination (7/8/25) Sept. 8, 2025 4,000
Nepal* June 24, 2015 Termination (6/6/25) August 5, 2025 12,700
Venezuela* Oct. 3, 2023 (re-designation) Termination (2/5/25) Not applicable 348,202

Table compiled by bhfs 7/22/2025
* Asterisks denote ongoing litigation 

WHAT CAN WE DO?
  • Local group DRUM has been organizing for 25 years and supports the Nepali population under threat from TPS terminations. Join their 25×25 campaign and have 25 of your own contacts donate $25 to support their work.
  • The National TPS alliance includes, among others, the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), Adhikaar and the Haitian Bridge Alliance. If you are able, consider donating to any or all of these organizations.
  • Attend the rally this Monday, July 28, at 6pm at Queens Borough Hall to demand continued TPS protections for immigrant neighbors. 

 

In solidarity and with collective care,

Jackson Heights Immigrant Solidarity Network (JHISN)

 

Follow @JHSolidarity on Facebook and Twitter and share this newsletter with friends, families, neighbors, networks, and colleagues so they can subscribe and receive news from JHISN.

 

 

JHISN Newsletter 09/14/2024

Posted on September 14, 2024 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends, 

We spend time at each JHISN meeting discussing what topics to write about in our next newsletter—the work of local immigrant justice groups? Immigrant organizing and struggles at the state or national level? This week we decided to pull together a longer article around what is happening with the influx of new migrants–an estimated 210,000–who have arrived in New York City since spring 2022. We realized that if we were not sure what was happening, maybe you, our readers, would value an update, too. And we continue to ask ourselves, and you too, what can solidarity look like with tens of thousands of new New Yorkers trying to rebuild their lives in the face of extraordinary challenges? 

1. Update on Migrant Politics in NYC

The flow of migrants to NY has slowed because of President Biden’s stringent restrictions on asylum seekers. But politics in the city is still roiled by disputes over how to care for the 64,000 migrant children and adults enmeshed in a makeshift, underfunded emergency shelter system, and the tens of thousands more pushed out of the shelters, who are struggling with homelessness, bureaucracy, inadequate services, and lack of solidarity. While the Adams administration works to erode the Right to Shelter, imposing cruel new time limits for shelter stays and disrupting asylum seekers’ attempts to form survival communities, advocates are warning officials in NYC and Albany about immigrants’ dire precarity and loss of human rights. 

 In early 2024, NYC began—for the first time since historic Right to Shelter policies were put in place—to enforce 30-day eviction notices for single migrant adults, and 60-day eviction notices for some recently arrived migrant families sheltering in the city’s emergency housing system. But evictions were spared for all migrants staying in over 160 Department of Homeless Services (DHS) shelters, located largely in Manhattan and Queens and housing just over half of recent migrants.

 That all changed this past month when New York State gave the green light for the city to begin issuing 60-day eviction notices to any migrant family in DHS shelters except for those registered for public assistance, or who have successfully applied for asylum or Temporary Protective Status (TPS). Thousands of recent arrivals, including school-age children, are now threatened with displacement by the new emergency shelter policy (which does not affect non-migrant adults or families).

 In August the city also began conducting sweeps to take down migrant encampments that had grown up beneath an overpass in Brooklyn, and next to shelters from which people had been evicted, including outside the 3,000 person mega-shelter on Randall’s Island. Some people set up tents at dusk and take them down in the morning, others sleep in the open under blankets. These newly established communities feel cooperative and safer, according to participants; people pool their money to buy food that they share. A statement by the Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless criticized destruction of the encampments, saying: “These continued sweeps are cruel, confusing, and have a chilling effect on our clients and their willingness to seek City services to which they are entitled.”

The experience of recently arrived children is especially dire. The new DHS shelter evictions mean many school-age children are forced to change schools—losing friends, teachers, and any sense of steady community. Nearly 40,000 new migrant children have enrolled in NYC public schools since 2022. But far from declaring an emergency, NYC schools chancellor David C. Banks recently noted that the influx of new students “has been a godsend” for some schools, making up for recent dramatic enrollment declines and helping some schools to keep their doors open. “If you want to see New York City schools at their best,” Banks says, “look at how these teachers have responded to the migrant crisis. It’s incredible. They’ve partnered kids with other kids who are serving as buddies for them. They’ve got mentors from older grades.” With shelter evictions now on the table, some schools risk a sudden, mid-year loss of enrollment which threatens budgeting and teacher placement, along with the severe disruption to children’s lives and learning.

Evictions also introduce a Kafkaesque element to migrants’ struggles to gain work authorization, or pursue their legal cases for asylum and legal status: the cascading effects of lost or undelivered mail. With tens of thousands of newly arrived migrants staying in over 200 emergency shelters throughout the city, the makeshift mail rooms in shelter spaces are simply unable to effectively handle the flow of mail. Documents to apply for work authorization or Social Security numbers, notices to appear in immigration court—all move through the mail system and must be delivered and received on time. Shelter evictions have only intensified the problem. Migrants trying to retrieve mail from shelters they have been forced out of are often prohibited from re-entry, or told that they have no mail even when they have delivery receipts.

The wave of ongoing migrant evictions has not taken place without challenge. Brooklyn Council Member Shahana Hanif has sponsored a bill that would prohibit any city agency from limiting length of stay for anyone in city shelters or emergency housing. At the NY state level, similar legislation has been introduced.

NYC comptroller Brad Lander conducted an investigation into the 60-day Rule, concluding in May 2024 that the policy has been implemented haphazardly, and should end. Instead, the city should “implement a policy that genuinely coordinates temporary shelter, legal assistance toward immigration status and work authorization, workforce development that enables people to obtain work, and case management that enables people to achieve self-sufficiency.”

Activist groups joined together statewide over a year ago to form the NY SANE Coalition to protect the legal Right to Shelter—including Housing Justice For All, the Legal Aid Society, Coalition for the Homeless, and Win. They too have demanded the elimination of new shelter limits for asylum seekers, and an end to “this cruel practice that will leave families in the cold and uproot children from their classrooms.” A letter in May 2024 from health care workers to the mayor and the governor stated clearly: “We are reminded daily in our practice that stable shelter is absolutely necessary for human health and life….Over the past two years, we’ve seen firsthand how a lack of stable housing for migrants and unhoused New Yorkers has contributed to their systemic exclusion from life-saving healthcare…”

The Adams administration seems locked onto a policy of punitive, inhumane measures to discourage migrants from coming to NYC, or from succeeding if they make it here. What they have actually accomplished is making the city worse for all of us: generating unnecessary trauma, homelessness, and conflict. This is the wrong path. With some creativity and compassion, the current wave of immigrants could quickly become part of our communities and our workforces, invigorating and strengthening our city, as wave after wave of migrants has done before. New York should welcome our new neighbors and invest in their future—our future—instead of criminalizing and obstructing them.

WHAT CAN WE DO?
  • Follow NY SANE Coalition and their fight to roll back the Mayor’s shelter eviction policy.
  • Keep the pressure on our local Council Member, Shekar Krishnan, to help win passage of Int. No. 210, the bill to protect migrants from shelter eviction.

 

In solidarity and with collective care,

Jackson Heights Immigrant Solidarity Network (JHISN)

 

Follow @JHSolidarity on Facebook and Twitter and share this newsletter with friends, families, neighbors, networks, and colleagues so they can subscribe and receive news from JHISN. 

 

 

JHISN Newsletter 04/27/2024

Posted on April 27, 2024 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends,

As we know, our vibrant immigrant neighborhoods here in Central Queens are profoundly affected by external forces. This week we report on the attempt by a billionaire and his political buddies to build a casino in Queens on what is currently designated parkland—a project that would disproportionately affect nearby working-class immigrant communities. We then take a look at recent court decisions and moves by the federal government regarding TPS (Temporary Protective Status) that can strengthen or weaken legal protections for neighbors here in Jackson Heights. 

Newsletter highlights:
  1. Corona, East Elmhurst, Flushing threatened by mega-development project
  2. Update on safeguarding TPS (Temporary Protective Status) 

1. Casino Project Divides Neighborhood

“The casino will only exploit our community’s poverty and mental health issues, issues that especially impact the immigrants in Flushing, as well as tear down the hard-earned livelihoods earned by our parents and elders.”  Sophia Lin, MinKwon Center

Acres of desolate parking spaces surrounding Citi Field have become the focus of a major political battle, pitting billionaire Steven Cohen, the owner of the Mets, against the Flushing Anti-Displacement Alliance (FADA), FED UP (Flushing for Equitable Development and Urban Planning) coalition, the MinKwon Center, Queens Neighborhoods United and their allies. 

Cohen has mounted a slick, hard-charging campaign seeking approval for his proposed $8 billion development, Metropolitan Park, which would be anchored by a casino. The overall project also envisions about 20 acres of green space, hotels, and a Hard Rock Cafe. Cohen claims that Metropolitan Park would increase tourism and create 15,000 jobs. Local City Councilperson Francisco Moya is a supporter, as are some construction unions. 

However, FADA challenges the project’s impact on the adjacent, predominantly working-class immigrant neighborhoods of Corona, East Elmhurst, and Flushing. They argue that “there is documented evidence of casinos contributing to gentrification and displacement of our residents, workers, and small businesses.” Critics also point out that climate change will inundate the whole Flushing Creek development area—formerly wetlands—without proper mitigation. FADA has proposed their own alternative for the site: a 65-acre public park with water views, called Phoenix Meadows, dedicated largely to green space, outdoor recreation, and flood resiliency. 

The area in contention was in fact designated as parkland in 1939, part of Flushing Meadows Corona Park, but has never been used for that purpose. In order for Cohen’s casino project to advance, the state legislature would have to waive the land’s legal status as a park. (Ironically, Cohen’s slogan is “Let’s Turn a Parking Lot Into a Park.”) That puts State Senator Jessica Ramos in the hot seat. Cohen is eager to get her to co-sponsor a bill—already waiting in the Assembly—to privatize the parkland. While at the same time many of Ramos’ constituents are upset that she would even consider “alienating” needed public land for a private casino.

Ramos has hosted three town halls about Cohen’s casino plan. According to The City, “Ramos said it’s been hard to find people who are actually supportive of the casino but who haven’t ‘received or been promised a check’” by Cohen. The Senator’s own polling shows that most local residents oppose the casino, with 84% favoring Phoenix Meadows over the Metropolitan Park proposal. In addition, Ramos has criticized Cohen’s expensive publicity campaign for his plan, which sometimes fails to even mention that it features a casino.

For Phoenix Meadows advocates, the stark reality is that Cohen can probably block any alternate use of the parking lots for years since he currently controls them under a long-term lease. And as Ramos acknowledges, many people living near Citi Field would like to see some form of economic development to replace the acres of asphalt. But the give-away of public land for an unpopular project faces serious obstacles as well.

Ramos has postponed her decision from April, to May, to June. In the meantime, partisans on both sides have lobbied her furiously. For instance, dozens of small business people, including owners of the Jackson Diner, Pio Pio, and Kabab King, signed a letter asking Ramos to support Metropolitan Park. Jessica Rico, owner of Mojitos, helped lead the effort, arguing that Cohen’s plan was a “marvelous project” that would be good for tourism and small business. 

In contrast, FADA has organized a series of spirited demonstrations, including one in front of Ramos’ home on 79th Street earlier this month, demanding that Ramos act like a “real progressive” and “listen to the people.” “We will not let a billionaire dictate our future,” they say. Ramos encourages all community participation on the issue and has pledged to “keep lines of communication open.” 

With each side of the controversy wielding possible veto power over the other’s proposal, and with the state Gaming Commission scheduled to finalize coveted casino sites by the end of next year, Ramos finds herself in the middle of intense negotiations. But she seems to be in no hurry.

“I work at the speed of my neighbors, not at the speed of a billionaire’s personal timeline. If I was to introduce parkland alienation legislation, it would only be because my community has iron-clad commitments where the benefits vastly outweigh the risks associated with a casino.” —State Senator Jessica Ramos

WHAT CAN WE DO?

  • Sign the Fight4Flushing petition calling for NO Casino, NO privatization of public parkland.
  • Check out the FED UP coalition’s map of Flushing area developments and predicted flooding.

2. How the courts help and hinder TPS

Established as part of the Immigration Act of 1990, Temporary Protective Status (TPS) grants employment and travel authorization and protects eligible migrants from deportation. To be eligible a migrant must already reside in the US, and be a citizen of a TPS designated country suffering from natural disaster, protracted unrest, or conflict. 

Seven years ago then-President Trump announced he would end the TPS program for El Salvador, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Sudan. Despite these program cancellations being associated with his infamous statement that these were “shithole countries“, lawsuits were unsuccessful in convincing the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that racial discrimination was the primary factor for the decision. After courts ruled that terminating TPS was lawful, Homeland Security was emboldened; they added Nepal and Honduras to the list of canceled TPS programs. Local group, African Communities Together, led one of the many follow-up lawsuits to protect Liberians when the administration added canceling Liberia’s DED (Deferred Enforced Departure)—DED is a variation of TPS but, whereas TPS is designated by the Secretary of Homeland Security, DED is granted by the President.

A unanimous ruling of the Supreme Court in one of eight cases related to TPS found that admission to the US and gaining lawful status through TPS are distinct concepts. As a result, a person who holds TPS but was not “lawfully admitted” will not be eligible to apply for Legal Permanent Residency (LPR). Legal clinics believe it is unlikely that this ruling will rescind the status of people granted LPR in the past but, as the right-wing 2025 Project reveals, the reinstatement of the denaturalization program is a critical element of the next Republican presidency. Denaturalization—which strips citizenship status from immigrants who have previously earned it—could be weaponized against past TPS recipients who followed a pathway to citizenship.

The length of time for these court appeals extended into the start of Biden’s administration, but no immediate action was taken to reverse the program cancellations. The administration did not rescind the program terminations until June of 2023.  Although the PEW Research Center has reported that TPS expanded under Biden, it has done so mostly under pressure. In May of 2022, Jackson Heights’ congressional representatives AOC and Grace Meng signed a letter urging Biden to expand the TPS program. In addition to finally extending TPS for people from the four originally threatened regions, Biden’s DHS is considering a request for Guatemalans to be granted TPS, allowing them to live and work in the US without fear of deportation. AOC also signed a second letter in September of 2022, urging TPS protection be granted to people from Pakistan. Both are still under consideration. Adhikaar successfully advocated for TPS to be extended for Nepal in 2023.

Note: the graph above by the Council on Foreign Relations does not reflect changes from 2024.

The Biden administration has shown it can take action, but only when pressured to do so. Last month local groups Adhikaar, ACT, DRUM, Families for Freedom, and Make the Road NY co-signed the Haitian Bridge Alliance’s letter; 481 groups urged the administration to expand and redesignate TPS for Haiti beyond August 2024. While pressuring Biden to continue support for TPS during a future second term is not optimal, it is more palatable than taking legal actions during a second Trump term since the courts have already said the President can immediately end all these humanitarian programs. 

WHAT CAN WE DO?

 

In solidarity and with collective care,

Jackson Heights Immigrant Solidarity Network (JHISN)

 

Follow @JHSolidarity on Facebook and Twitter and share this newsletter with friends, families, neighbors, networks, and colleagues so they can subscribe and receive news from JHISN.