Stephanie Delia of Little Haiti BK testifies on pro se services and preparedness
Stephanie Delia of Little Haiti BK says over half a million Haitian TPS recipients lost status on July 27, 2026, and there are not enough immigration lawyers. She calls for more pro se services, preparedness planning, guardianship orders, and ways to protect assets if people are removed.
Thank you, Chair Encarnacion and New York City Council Immigration Committee for hearing us today.
My name is Stephanie Delia, and I'm the Executive Director of Little Haiti BK.
On July 27, 2026, over half a million Haitian TPS recipients lost status and over 100,000
Syrian immigrant TPS recipients lost status.
We know by those sheer numbers alone that there are not enough immigration lawyers to represent each and every single one of them.
In response to that, I think the city has a duty to start to focus substantially more on pro se services.
If we cannot be there with them, at least give them the tools, the information, and the confidence to support themselves.
I used to work with QD Citizenship Now, and I know personally that they are one of the best at doing this work.
Little Haiti BK is partnering with them to provide legal services so that people could be prepared to represent themselves.
Pro se, as many of the former TPS recipients are receiving notices to appear to show up in court.
We have seen by the prior reports that some of the agencies, unfortunately, are sharing information, and so some of the former TPS recipients attending court are not safe.
In addition to just immigration services, I cannot stress the importance of preparedness planning.
Specifically, it is important that people protect their children, protect their money, come up with an emergency plan so that they could help protect themselves, and get their documents in order so that if they are picked up by ICE unexpectedly,
an attorney who is prepared to assist them can get the documents quickly.
We know that this administration is transporting parents or people to other states, and so to the extent somebody gets picked up in New York and ends up going to Louisiana, we want to ensure that if they have
any of the proper orders, guardianship orders filed for their children, that at one point they could be reunited and families do not get separated.
Lastly, when it comes to protecting their money, a lot of the Haitian TPS recipients have been in America for a very long time.
They own businesses, they own property, they have made a living here.
They have a huge portion of this community in the healthcare industry.
They have pensions, they have 401k plans.
Some of them have small businesses.
And I think it's very important that the city starts to consider manners to ensure that they are able to protect some of their funds if they are unexpectedly removed.
Thank you for your time.