On July 24, many Haitian workers across the United States may lose the federal employment authorization that allows them to remain on payroll.
In San Diego, that deadline is not an abstract immigration dispute. It may affect families who entered through this border region, built lives here and joined an economy in which immigrant labor is essential.
San Diego has played an unusual role in the recent Haitian migration story. After difficult journeys through South and Central America, many Haitians reached the United States through Southern California. Some continued to larger Haitian communities elsewhere. Others remained in San Diego County, found jobs, enrolled children in school and began rebuilding lives disrupted by Haiti’s continuing collapse.
The Haitian Bridge Alliance, founded in San Diego, grew out of that experience. Its local roots reflect this region’s importance as both a border gateway and a place of settlement.
The economic context matters. According to a recent San Diego County immigrant-population profile, approximately 738,000 immigrants live in the county, representing about 22% of its population. Roughly 462,000 immigrant workers make up 26% of the county labor force.
They help sustain construction, hospitality, food service, manufacturing, caregiving and other industries in which employers often struggle to find and retain workers. San Diego County is also home to tens of thousands of immigrant entrepreneurs and more than 150,000 immigrant-owned homes.
These are not people standing outside the local economy. They are helping operate it.
Under current USCIS guidance, covered Haitian employment authorization remains valid only through July 24. Unless another legal development intervenes, affected employers will then have to remove workers from their schedules — not because those employees performed poorly, violated workplace rules or lacked needed skills, but because Washington withdrew the document permitting them to work.
California is especially exposed to the broader dismantling of Temporary Protected Status. Nearly 80,000 TPS holders from numerous countries were living in the state as of early 2025, according to federal data cited by KQED. That is not a Haitian-only count, and reliable public data do not show exactly how many Haitian TPS workers live in San Diego. But it demonstrates how deeply TPS has become embedded in California communities and workplaces.
The June 25 Supreme Court decision in Mullin v. Doe raises the stakes. The court held that federal law bars judicial review of most nonconstitutional challenges to a Homeland Security secretary’s decision to terminate a country’s TPS designation. In practical terms, that makes future terminations much harder to stop through ordinary administrative-law litigation.
Haitians and Syrians were directly before the court, but the consequences extend much further. The administration has pursued TPS terminations affecting people from at least 11 countries, and the ruling may influence protections covering approximately 1.3 million people from 17 countries.
Haiti may therefore be the first stage of a much broader withdrawal of legally authorized workers.
For San Diego employers, the immediate consequences will arrive through ordinary workplace mechanics. Human-resources departments will need to review employment documents. Supervisors may lose trained workers. Shifts will have to be reassigned. Businesses may need to recruit and train replacements in industries where labor is already difficult to find.
For families, “loss of work authorization” is sterile government language for losing the ability to pay rent, buy groceries, maintain health insurance and support children.
Temporary Protected Status was never intended to guarantee permanent residence. Congress made it temporary, and the executive branch may review whether a country continues to qualify. But temporary should not mean economically reckless.
Workers accepted jobs in reliance on federal authorization. Employers invested time and money training them. Families signed leases, purchased cars and enrolled children in school around the government’s decision that they could lawfully remain and work.
Conditions in Haiti also remain catastrophic. Armed groups control much of Port-au-Prince, public institutions have deteriorated and large numbers of people have been displaced. Ending TPS under those conditions is not simply an administrative adjustment. It is a decision to dismantle lives built here while directing people toward a country unable to provide basic security.
San Diego understands the distance between border rhetoric and border reality better than most American cities. This region sees what happens after migrants arrive. Nonprofits help families navigate unfamiliar systems. Employers train workers. Churches provide assistance. Children enter classrooms.
Over time, newcomers become employees, taxpayers, customers and neighbors.
That integration takes years. Washington can disrupt it with the expiration date printed on an employment card.
San Diego’s congressional delegation and business leaders should demand a workable transition period and a durable legislative solution for long-resident TPS holders. Employers should review documents carefully and avoid prematurely suspending anyone whose authorization remains valid. Haitian families should seek individualized legal advice because some may qualify for asylum, family-based residence or other relief independent of TPS.
San Diego did not create Haiti’s crisis, and local employers did not design the TPS system. But this region will absorb the consequences of Washington’s decision.
For years, San Diego helped Haitian families move from the border into workplaces, neighborhoods and schools.
On July 24, the federal government may begin pushing them out of all three.
Richard T. Herman is a Cleveland-based, nationally recognized immigration attorney. For more than 30 years, he has represented immigrants, employers, healthcare systems, educational institutions and families throughout the United States. He is the co-author of Immigrant, Inc.: Why Immigrant Entrepreneurs Are Driving the New Economy.
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