“What the Supreme Court did today is shameful, a deliberate unraveling of lives people spent years building here, legally and in good faith. The Supreme Court ruled that it won’t even examine whether this administration followed the law when it stripped Temporary Protected Status (TPS) from our Haitian and Syrian neighbors. It shut the courthouse door and, in doing so, pulled away the legal protection that stood between every other TPS holder in this country and the same fate. 
This case centered on our Haitian neighbors, but it touches every one of the more than 33,000 Marylanders with Temporary Protected Status, people from El Salvador, Honduras, Venezuela, Syria, Somalia, and beyond, many here for decades. They pay taxes, raise children who are U.S. citizens, and keep our hospitals, job sites, and restaurants running. Today, they were told they can be sent back to countries that are not safe.
Let me say plainly what this means. Losing TPS means losing your work permit and your legal right to be here. Someone who has lived here for years, with a home, a job, and children, can now be detained and deported at any time. These are not numbers on a page. They are our neighbors, our coworkers, our friends. What’s being done to them is cruelty dressed up as policy, and I will not call it anything else.
The Court also dealt a second blow today, ruling the government can turn away people seeking asylum before they ever set foot on U.S. soil, denying families fleeing violence and persecution the chance to even ask for safety. Seeking asylum is not a crime. It is a right written into our laws and grounded in the most basic human decency. A country that turns its back on people at their most desperate is not living up to who we say we are. Montgomery County will remain a place where people fleeing harm are met with dignity, not a closed door.
Here is what does not change. Montgomery County will not ask about your immigration status when you come to us for help. Our local laws keep county resources out of federal deportation efforts. And our health and human services remain open to every resident, whatever their status. We can’t undo a decision made in Washington, but no one here will face it alone.
If you or someone you love has TPS, do not panic or act on rumors. We’re still working through exactly what this ruling means for our residents, and we will share clear guidance as soon as we have it. In the meantime, check your country’s current status at uscis.gov, talk to a trusted legal provider before making any decisions, and reach out to us. Call or visit the Gilchrist Immigrant Resource Center website to get accurate information and real help.
And this fight isn’t over. TPS was only ever meant to be temporary; the real fix is permanent, and it has to come from Congress. We will keep pushing for immigration laws that are fair, that keep faith with people fleeing danger, and that finally allow those who have given decades to this country to stop living in fear. That’s work for all of us, at the ballot box and beyond.”
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Read the original article at mcgov
