BOSTON — Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell is vowing to use "every tool" her office has to fight the Trump administration's push to strip Temporary Protected Status from hundreds of thousands of Haitian and Syrian immigrants — just days after the Supreme Court signaled it's likely to side with the president.
"SCOTUS, do the right thing and uphold Temporary Protected Status for Haiti and Syria," Campbell wrote on Facebook. "We cannot allow the Trump Admin to send families back into dangerous conditions."
"I will use every tool my office has to protect our immigrant communities," she added.
AG Campbell calls on SCOTUS to uphold TPS. Screenshot via Facebook.
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The statement came as the Supreme Court appeared poised to back Trump's effort to end TPS for an estimated 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians currently living in the U.S. During oral arguments on April 29, multiple justices signaled sympathy for the administration's position that courts have no authority to review TPS termination decisions at all.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the justices that under the statute creating TPS, courts "cannot review any determination by the DHS secretary with regard to the designation or termination of a foreign nation for protected status." Attorneys for the immigrants argued that while the final decision may not be reviewable, the process used to reach it can be challenged.
A ruling is expected before the end of June and could affect more than one million immigrants nationwide.
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Massachusetts and Haiti
Massachusetts has one of the largest Haitian communities in the country, concentrated in Boston, Brockton, and the greater Boston area. A decision ending TPS for Haitians would have an outsized impact on the state — and Campbell's pledge to fight it puts her squarely in the middle of one of the biggest immigration battles heading into the summer.
It also puts her in familiar company. Campbell has repeatedly positioned herself as a check on the Trump administration's immigration enforcement, joining multi-state lawsuits and issuing public statements opposing ICE operations in Massachusetts. Critics say the AG's office should be focused on enforcing state law — starting with the voter-approved legislature audit that 72% of Massachusetts voters backed in 2024 and that Campbell has yet to enforce — rather than waging political fights with the federal government over immigration policy that is squarely within Washington's jurisdiction.
The Supreme Court's ruling will determine whether Campbell's "every tool" amounts to anything — or whether the law she's vowing to fight with simply isn't on her side.
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