Attorney General Bonta Calls on Congress to Extend Temporary Protected Status to Haitians

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today, as part of a coalition of 20 attorneys general, urged Congress to pass H.R. 1689, which would extend Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians. The letter also calls on Congress to pass legislation that would allow for judicial oversight of TPS decisions and provide TPS holders with a path to legal residency. TPS is a critical humanitarian program established by Congress in 1990 that allows nationals of designated countries to remain in the United States due to ongoing armed conflict, environmental disaster, or extraordinary and temporary conditions in their home countries. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with the Trump Administration in effectively terminating TPS for Haitians and Syrians while laying the groundwork for the revocation of TPS protections for other countries without any form of judicial oversight or review.

“The Trump Administration’s termination of longstanding protections for Haitians was a devastating blow to communities up and down California,” said Attorney General Bonta. “But this is not the end of the road. I call on Congress to take the matter into its own hands and pass legislation to protect the TPS program from politics and partisanship, and ensure these hardworking immigrant communities are not forced to return to countries that are still dangerous.” 

In their letter, Attorney General Bonta and the coalition argue that the termination of TPS for Haiti will have immediate repercussions, not only for Haitian TPS holders, but also for the economies of both the nation and individual states, which are dependent on Haitian workers. Haitian TPS holders contribute $5.9 billion to the U.S. economy annually and pay approximately $1.6 billion in taxes.

The coalition also underscores the severe humanitarian conditions in Haiti, where TPS was first designated in 2010 following a devastating earthquake that killed more than 220,000 people and displaced more than 1.5 million people. Since then, additional crises — including a cholera outbreak, Hurricane Matthew, political instability, escalating gang violence, civil unrest, and poverty — have only exacerbated unsafe conditions in Haiti. The U.S. State Department currently maintains a “Level 4 Do Not Travel” warning for Haiti “due to the risk of crime, kidnapping, terrorism, unrest, and limited health care.”

The coalition asks Congress to take immediate action to institute protections for Haitian TPS holders, including by passing An Act to require the Secretary of Homeland Security to designate Haiti for temporary protected status (H.R. 1689/S.4814), which has already passed in the U.S. House of Representatives. They also ask Congress to pass legislation allowing for judicial oversight and pathways to permanent legal residency for TPS holders. Judicial oversight would provide a necessary check on potential abuse of executive branch power by allowing for the impartial review of TPS decisions, including by allowing courts to determine whether the statutory requirements for the removal of a country’s TPS designation were followed.

Attorney General Bonta is committed to upholding the rights and protections of all Californians, including the nearly 11 million immigrants who call California home. In April 2026, Attorney General Bonta co-led an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court opposing the Trump Administration’s termination of TPS for Haitians and Syrians. He has repeatedly supported challenges to the termination of TPS for Haitians and Venezuelans, and defended pathways for legal immigration for those fleeing dangerous conditions in their home countries. Attorney General Bonta has secured permanent injunctions blocking the Trump Administration’s attempts to illegally condition homeland security and transportation funding on state participation in immigration enforcement. And he has temporarily blocked the Trump Administration’s efforts to impose cruel new restrictions on access to public benefit programs based on immigration status while litigation continues.

Joining Attorney General Bonta in sending this letter are the attorneys general of Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and the District of Columbia.