Zoe Warner
•7/7/2026
FORT MYERS, Fla. (WINK)—Haitian American families in Southwest Florida are scrambling to figure out their next steps following the Supreme Court's decision to allow the government to revoke Temporary Protected Status for Haitian and Syrian holders.
According to the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association, the Supreme Court's recent ruling has impacted more than 90,000 Temporary Protected Status holders and workers in Florida. These holders contribute more than $2.5 billion to the state's economy.
The Fort Myers Haitian-American Coalition president says impacted families should get their documents and affairs in order sooner rather than later. Beatrice Jacquet-Castor, president of the Haitian-American Community Coalition of SWFL, spoke with WINK News about the urgency families are facing.
"Right now everybody's scrambling. What we're doing is we're telling all of our Haitian people, Syrian people that are affected to get their orders in a fear to start laying out documents given power of attorneys, because if they ever get picked up and they're already on removal status, they will be deported," Jacquet-Castor said.
Since the decision, several federal lawsuits have been filed claiming the termination of TPS is unlawful. The legal challenges add another layer of uncertainty for families navigating their options in Southwest Florida.
