Office of the
Illinois Attorney General
Kwame Raoul

Chicago — Attorney General Kwame Raoul today issued the following statement in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Mullin v. Doe.

“The Supreme Court’s decision in Mullin v. Doe is disturbing on several levels. As a Haitian-American, for me it is deeply personal and painful. The majority’s opinion concludes that the Secretary of Homeland Security’s determination to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is not subject to judicial review, even when it is alleged that the secretary did not follow the procedure mandated by the TPS statute. The statute explicitly requires the secretary to consult with federal agencies, including the State Department, prior to making a TPS determination. That is done to make certain the secretary is properly informed about the current conditions in the countries of origin of those with TPS status. The appropriate consultation with the State Department would reveal that it has a State Department Level 4 ‘Do not Travel’ advisory because of risk of violence, kidnapping and limited emergency medical services. U.S. commercial flights are not even allowed to fly to Haiti’s capital. If ever there was a time and conditions that should allow for temporary protected status and asylum, there’s nothing as clear as this. The Supreme Court’s decision essentially allows the secretary of Homeland Security to arbitrarily end temporary protected status at a whim, which should alarm all Americans.

“Moreover, the court rejected the notion that the determination was motivated by race, notwithstanding the president’s disparaging statements about Haitians. The court stated that nothing in the president’s statements about Haitian immigrants have been ‘overtly racist.’  If saying you prefer immigrants from Norway and Sweden over immigrants from a ‘shithole’ country like Haiti is not overtly racist, I don’t know what is. That is not even to mention the racist statements suggesting Haitians were eating people's pets and poisoning the blood of our country.

“Haitians with TPS status are working, paying taxes and contributing to our economy. In fact, Haitians have been making contributions since this country’s inception. Recently, I traveled to Savannah, Georgia, where a monument stands in Franklin Square to commemorate the contributions and sacrifices that hundreds of Haitian soldiers made in the Siege of Savannah during the American Revolutionary War. In my hometown of Chicago, we recognize a Haitian man, Jean Baptiste Point DuSable, as our first settler who had the vision that the land we now know as Chicago could be a center of trade in the Midwest. To allow for the termination of TPS status for Haitian Immigrants in this manner ignores the specific mandates of the TPS statute, current conditions in Haiti and the many contributions made by Haitians to this country.”