Harlaine Dominique has spent years building a life in the United States, working as a travel nurse, raising her 16-month-old son and caring for her mother. Now she is waiting for a Supreme Court decision that could strip away the temporary protected status that lets her stay and work here legally.
The court is expected to decide the fate of TPS holders in less than two months, and more than 300,000 Haitians could face deportation if the justices allow the program to end. Dominique, who came to the United States in 1995 when she was 7 years old and overstayed a visa, says the possibility keeps her awake at night because it could upend the only life she has known.
Dominique and her mother, Roz, were first granted deportation protection in 2010 after a magnitude-7.0 earthquake struck Haiti and killed over 200,000 people. Since then, their status has been renewed several times as Haiti has remained unstable, with political turmoil and gang violence prompting continued protection for people who cannot safely return.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Dominique worked on the front line treating patients. She said that service makes the current fight feel especially cruel. “It hurts deeply to know that just six years ago, I was a hero. Now I am considered a burden to this country,” she said. TPS, she said, has allowed her to live what she called the American dream, and losing it would mean everything she has built could be stripped away.
Her case also carries a personal urgency beyond immigration court. Dominique is J.J.’s primary caregiver, and the boy’s father, an American citizen, is fighting for custody. She said she cannot imagine what deportation would do to her son. “For him to lose his mom — he’s my everything. He depends on me. He needs me,” she said.
The strain reaches her mother too. Dominique said Roz needs a kidney transplant and lost access to Medicare this year after the Trump administration restricted access for TPS holders. That change has sharpened the family’s fear that legal protection can be pulled back piece by piece, even as they remain rooted in the country they have called home for decades.
TPS gives Haitians permission to live and work in the United States, but it offers no path to permanent residency or citizenship. Supporters say the designation recognizes dangerous conditions abroad, while critics, including the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress, have argued that it has allowed migrants to remain in the country for years. For Dominique, the debate is not theoretical. “We’ve built a life here. We have our family. We’ve helped build this economy, this country. Stripping us of it is inhumane,” she said.
The Supreme Court’s ruling will determine whether that life can continue for Dominique and thousands of others, or whether the legal shield that has protected them for years will disappear with little time to prepare.
