Gov. Kathy Hochul said she, like Mayor Zohran Mamdani, personally appealed to President Donald Trump to maintain Temporary Protected Status (TPS) protections. He warned that its elimination could force state and local governments to lay off hundreds of public employees.
Hochul disclosed the conversation with Trump in an Aug. 14 letter to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. The letter was initially reported Monday by POLITICO and later released by the governor’s office.
“Abruptly ending TPS for people legally in the country, including the recent termination for Haitians and the upcoming one for Salvadorans, will force New York State and local governments to lay off hundreds of essential employees as soon as next week,” Hochul wrote. He warned that the move would put their livelihoods and, potentially, their safety at risk.
The governor’s office explained that the estimate of “hundreds” is based on reports from local governments and preliminary calculations from state agencies and public authorities. However, it did not detail how many affected workers belong to the state government nor did it identify the agencies, authorities or municipalities included in the figure.
Hochul’s warning amplifies a labor problem that is already affecting New York City.
Mamdani said last week that he also personally appealed to Trump to restore protections for Haitian immigrants, as the Mayor’s Office began removing workers who had lost their federal work authorization from their jobs.
The Mayor’s Office reported that dozens of municipal employees had been affected and that, in accordance with federal law, it was obliged to remove from their positions those who depended on the TPS for Haitians and could not demonstrate another legal basis for working.
“I spoke with the president and made it very clear that this is something of enormous importance to this city, our economy and the well-being of all who call this city home,” Mamdani said on August 10.
Hochul warned, however, that the consequences would not be limited to government workers.
“This impact is not limited to public workers and will be felt in private sector industries across our state,” he wrote. “The sudden departure of these members from our workforce and our communities will impact essential services that New Yorkers depend on, especially in the healthcare industry, putting our seniors and other vulnerable New Yorkers at risk.”
The governor called the White House’s actions a “reckless and inhumane act” and called on Mullin to “fully restore TPS for those who cannot return due to the extreme instability, violence and crisis in the countries designated for this program.”
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson defended the Trump administration’s position, although he did not directly respond to Hochul’s warning about the hundreds of public workers who could be affected.
“Temporary Protected Status is exactly that: temporary,” the spokesperson said in a statement to our sister publication, amNewYork. “For too long, TPS has been allowed to operate as a de facto amnesty program, even though Congress never intended it to be permanent.”
“DHS responds to official correspondence through official channels,” he added.
The dispute comes after the US Supreme Court issued a ruling on June 25 that cleared the way for the Trump administration to end TPS protections for hundreds of thousands of Haitian and Syrian immigrants.
After that ruling, Hochul and Mamdani appeared together to warn that the elimination of TPS could leave thousands of New Yorkers without work authorization and affect the workforce of both the city and the state.
Mullin had previously defended the administration’s decision to end TPS. In June, it said affected immigrants could apply for permanent residency or another temporary visa, or “choose to return” to their home countries. He also noted that the federal government would help Haitians and Syrians return with a plane ticket and approximately $2,100 in assistance.
His statements drew strong criticism from immigrant advocates and New York elected officials.
