The Kentucky nurse, who asked not to be identified, told the Associated Press that she has been “living with this internal fear” since the court’s decision. She said the process of preparing her affairs for her children — all U.S. citizens — felt “like preparing for a funeral.”
“I have been living with this internal fear, it’s like preparing for a funeral, just in case I die when going to another country,” the nurse said.
She said she transferred her properties into her children’s names and legally designated a guardian for them, steps she said she took because she felt she needed to prepare for death in case she gets deported.
The ruling applies to approximately 6,000 Syrians as well as the roughly 350,000 Haitians who have Temporary Protected Status, according to the Associated Press. TPS allows migrants from countries affected by armed conflict, natural disasters, or other extraordinary conditions to live and work legally in the United States. Many Haitian recipients have been in the U.S. for decades and have children who are U.S. citizens.
Thursday’s decision could have broader implications beyond the two countries. The Associated Press reported that it could open the door for the Trump administration to unwind protections for 1.3 million people from 17 countries currently designated for TPS. NBC News reported that last year, the Supreme Court in two separate decisions allowed the Trump administration to revoke the same kind of legal status from 600,000 Venezuelans in the U.S., and that the Trump administration argued in court papers that those actions set a precedent that lower courts should have applied to the Haitian and Syrian immigrants, too.
Fear ricocheted through Haitian communities across the United States after the decision, the Associated Press reported.