Pastor reports ICE vehicles outside church after Sunday service

Pastor Lander Saintelus said the effects of the TPS termination on his congregation at Bright Morning Star International Ministries on Page Street in New Bedford have been severe and cumulative. When Homeland Security announced more than a year ago that Haiti’s TPS designation would end, Saintelus said nearly all of his approximately 100 church members lost their jobs. By March, he said he was helping families pay utility bills. By June, he was fielding calls from members too afraid to leave home to attend services because they feared immigration agents were waiting outside.

The situation escalated on June 21. Saintelus said he stepped outside after Sunday service and saw three unfamiliar black vehicles parked at the curb, with people inside wearing vests marked “ICE.” Panic rippled through the congregation, he said, as members who had held TPS for years and built their lives in New Bedford suddenly faced the immediate prospect of enforcement.

The legal status of nearly 1.3 million immigrants from 17 countries is now uncertain after the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on June 25 that the Homeland Security secretary’s decision to grant, extend or terminate a country’s TPS designation is largely beyond judicial review. The ruling, which upheld the administration’s authority to end protections for Haiti and Syria, opened the door to unwinding protections for the broader TPS population, which includes people fleeing war and environmental disasters.

In New Bedford, community advocate Lilly Rodriguez, a Salvadoran immigrant, said members of the TPS community are “scared” as they await decisions on whether the administration will extend protections for other countries. “They’re people that have had TPS for the last 20 years, and they don’t know where they’re going to end up,” Rodriguez said. She said confusion around TPS policies has led to people losing their jobs with local companies even though they still held valid protections.

Saintelus said Bright Morning Star has continued providing support, but the congregation has shrunk as uncertainty reshapes daily life for people who have lived and worked in the United States for decades with no clear path forward.