This week, about 350,000 Haitians in the US will lose their legal status in light of a US Supreme Court decision on June 25 that allows the Trump administration to gut the Temporary Protected Status program.

For decades, immigrants from countries rocked by natural disasters or armed conflict have sought refuge in the US under the program, which grants them work permits and protection from deportation as long as they pass regular background screenings. But in the last year, as part of its anti-immigrant agenda, the Trump administration has aimed at decimating TPS protections for more than 1 million immigrants from countries such as Venezuela, Honduras, Nicaragua, Somalia and Burma. The latest US Supreme Court ruling explicitly targets TPS holders from Haiti and Syria.

No other state will feel the repercussions of the loss of Haitian TPS recipients more than Florida, where about half of the 350,000 in the US now live. Among them is a woman I will call Nina, a certified nursing assistant. She spoke to me last week on the condition that she remain anonymous given her precarious legal status. Nina and her two children left Haiti soon after the earthquake in 2010, which prompted the US government to include Haitians in the TPS program.

Nina started working in retail and later obtained her CNA license, and currently works at two nursing homes. She’s one of about 35,000 Haitians in Florida under TPS who work within the health care industry as nurses, for instance, or home health aids. She provides care to residents, helping them with feeding, grooming, and bathing. “Sometimes you get people who don’t have family or friends,” she told me. “We are their family.” At the height of the Covid pandemic, when visits from family and friends were cancelled, she held the hands of patients on their deathbeds.

Nina told me she will report to work until she can no longer do so legally. TPS protections, including work permits, are scheduled to expire on July 24.

“I try to keep a smile on my face, but my world is upside down,” she told me. “I do love my country, but right now is not the right time (to return).” She described how her former neighborhood in Port-au-Prince has been overrun by the violent gangs that have infiltrated much of the island nation in recent years. The US Department of State has warned Americans to avoid travel to the country, citing armed conflict between these gangs, the risk of........

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