Labor organizers and activists from Elmont and other Long Island neighborhoods rallied for immigrant workers’ rights at the Stories of Belonging celebration, at Sisters of St. Joseph Preparatory School in Brentwood, on June 18.
Among the organizations represented were Long Island Jobs with Justice, the Worker Institute at Cornell University, Sisters of St. Joseph, 1199SEIU, the Long Island Federation of Labor and the National TPS Alliance. Nassau County Legislator Carrié Solages and Luis Montes Brito, Suffolk County Legislator Sam Gonzalez’s chief of staff, were among the attendees who expressed their solidarity with Temporary Protected Status designees.
There are currently more than 56,000 TPS beneficiaries on Long Island. TPS is a temporary immigration status granted to people from countries experiencing civil unrest or natural disasters. It protects them from deportation and allows them to work legally in the United States. They are also entitled to certain constitutional protections.
The TPS designation does not, however, offer a path to citizenship or eligibility for public assistance. Recipients must renew their status annually, a process that includes biometric and work permit renewal fees.
Solages, who spoke at the event, said while many in the audience have dedicated their lives to immigrant rights, the Trump administration posed serious threats to TPS holders’ safety.
“This is a new fight for civil rights,” he said. “We have seen our progress vanishing through these executive orders and fear-mongering.”
Solages emphasized that while those who break the law should face consequences, Trump’s executive orders are targeting parents, not criminals. A former assistant district attorney in the Bronx, Solages compared raids by Immigration Customs and Enforcement and deportations to the Civil War-era Fugitive Slave Act, citing a lack of transparency and due process.
“I believe there is nothing illegal or alien about a human being,” he said. “We have to continue helping the most vulnerable people in our society.”
For Cecilia Martinez, 43, a TPS recipient who was granted permanent citizen status in 2023, after her son sponsored her, the program was life-changing. She came to Bay Shore from El Salvador alone in 2000, at age 16, fleeing a country still reeling from civil war after the U.S. funded and militarily aided the right-wing Salvadoran government.
Martinez began working as a nanny to pay for housing and school, and later became a nursing student at Winthrop-University Hospital — now NYU Langone Hospital — in Mineola, while learning English.
While many people assume that undocumented immigrants in the U.S. pay no taxes and drain funds from the country’s social programs, Martinez said that’s not the case.
“It’s the complete opposite,” she said. “I started paying taxes right away.”
Under TPS, Martinez paid income tax and annual fees to renew her work permit but could not access benefits for housing, college or retirement.
According to the National TPS Alliance, TPS and Deferred Enforced Departure recipients generate $4.6 billion annually in taxes and contribute $690 million to Social Security.
“We’re hardworking families,” Martinez said, “and we pay our taxes, because we want to do things right.”
Still, earning her green card “the right way” took 22 years. The immigration system is broken, Martinez said, and the government takes taxes from TPS beneficiaries without giving them benefits and protections in return.
While she didn’t entirely blame the government, she said the Trump administration has been a dead end for other TPS recipients seeking citizenship.
“I don’t think taking and separating families is the answer,” she said.
She also warned that deporting a million TPS holders nationwide would damage the economy and essential industries.
TPS holders contribute $35.2 billion to the GDP annually, $1.5 billion in mortgage payments, $2.8 billion in rent, and hold jobs in construction, food service, manufacturing, retail, health care and social assistance.
Mimi Pierre-Johnson, founder of the Elmont Cultural Center and a speaker at the event, said the Haitian community is vital to Elmont and neighboring areas, especially as home health care workers.
ZipAtlas data shows that nearly 13 percent of Elmont’s population is Haitian. On June 4, the Trump administration suspended Haitian immigration, and it ended deportation protections last Friday.
Without Haitian entrepreneurs — who Pierre-Johnson said run many small businesses and restaurants — and Haitian customers, the local economy could stagnate.
“There’s a domino effect of what happens when you start to deport certain immigrants in an area that is majority immigrants,” she said.
More urgently, Pierre-Johnson added, she worries about the safety of local children whose parents face deportation. Through her nonprofit work, she said, she knows that many immigrant parents are now having difficult conversations about their families’ futures.
“I think that’s what hurts me the most,” she said. “Where are they going to go? Because Haiti, right now, I can tell you it’s not ready for that many undocumented immigrants.”
Martinez said she was saddened by how social media and public rhetoric — particularly now — spread false narratives that all immigrants are criminals.
“The sad part is that people are not educated about who we are,” she said. “Do I look like a criminal? I’m not a criminal. I’m here to work. Those stories need to come out.”
