A Mass Family Separation

July 28, 2026

This time with a new target ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

June 26, 2026

Greetings, Meteor readers,

It has come to my attention that “Love Is Blind” is now casting for a New York City season. I feel like every New Yorker is guessing which of their former flings is most likely to end up on the show. (Or is that just me?)

In today’s newsletter, we take a look at a developing crisis for thousands of families. Plus, an elderly hero rises.

Love is blind, son,

Shannon Melero

WHAT’S GOING ON

“Needless deaths”: Yesterday, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians and Syrians in the United States ended, as per a June Supreme Court decision. The end of TPS means that more than 300,000 Haitian immigrants and 6,000 Syrian immigrants who are legally living in the U.S. will now be eligible for deportation. The Department of Homeland Security has already made plans to “ramp up” arrests and mass deportations, specifically in Haitian communities.

“What we are about to witness will be one of the largest family separation events in modern-day history,” the front page of Haitian Bridge Alliance’s website states. According to Brookings, an estimated 60,000 citizen children have been impacted by parental detention since January 2025. Given that researchers estimate that there are 50,000 children born in the U.S. to Haitian parents with TPS, it is highly likely that at least that many families will be torn apart if those parents cannot obtain a new legal status.

The TPS program was established in 1990, under George H. W. Bush (Republicans used to be okay with immigration) and was intended to offer safety to foreign nationals who could not safely return to their home countries due to “armed conflict, environmental disasters, or other extraordinary and temporary conditions.” Immigrants from El Salvador were the first to be granted TPS, due to the civil war there from 1972 to 1992. After a devastating earthquake in 2010, Haiti was added to the TPS list under the Obama administration.

PROTESTERS IN 2019, THE FIRST TIME THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION THREATENED TO END TPS FOR HAITI. (VIA GETTY IMAGES)

The Trump administration claims it’s ending TPS for Haiti because circumstances have improved enough for people to return; the same explanation has been applied to Syria. (There are nine countries on the TPS list, but a majority of them are set to expire this year.) But the decision could mean “that many, many people are going to die violent, needless deaths,” an attorney representing TPS holders told The Marshall Project. Gang violence is still rampant in Haiti, a hunger crisis is impacting millions, and the suspension of USAID funding last year left 750,000 Haitian women and girls without access to healthcare.

Thousands of immigrants are now left wondering how and when they will have to leave the United States. Many are afraid to leave their homes, and fear what awaits them if they return to Haiti. “If I don’t get mistreated by ICE at the detention center, I may be killed in Haiti, and my blood will be on [Trump’s] hands,” Farah Larrieux, a TPS holder from Haiti who works in hospitality and has been in the U.S. for 20 years, told NPR.

Viki, a young woman in Florida who was set to start a registered nursing program this month, had to withdraw after her employer informed her that her TPS was “done.” She was let go from that job as a caretaker for ventilator-dependent patients, she told the Miami Herald. Viki is now trying to get a green card under the Violence Against Women Act (another landmark piece of legislation that many Republicans want to kill).

Advocates say that there is one lifeline left: S.4814, a Senate bill that would extend TPS for Haiti through April 2029. The bill is sponsored by 27 Democrats and two Independents. The Haitian Bridge Alliance has this handy phone script available and urges everyone to call their senators.

AND:

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Betye Saar, a trailblazing artist who sought to reclaim Black women’s power and humanity, died at age 99 over the weekend. Saar’s 1972 mixed-media piece “The Liberation of Aunt Jemima”—which depicts the character with a broom and a rifle, perched atop a raised fist—helped spark the Black women’s movement, according to iconic activist Angela Davis. Saar “leaves behind an archival restoration of Black women’s multitudes, a legacy of elegant clarity and devout mysticism, and a truly spectacular sense of artistic self,” The Meteor’s Rebecca Carroll told us today.

SAAR AT A “PARTY IN THE GARDEN” AT THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART IN NEW YORK LAST MONTH. (VIA GETTY IMAGES)

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During the redo of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Donald Trump compared one attractive white woman to another. There was a joke somewhere in there, but we couldn’t find it.
Here are three words you never want to see together: Godzilla El Niño.
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Anita LeBrun, 82, is the hero Minnesotans didn’t know they needed. LeBrun was the driving force behind the “Grandparents Happy Hour” bill, recently signed into law, that will allow assisted living facilities in the state to serve alcohol to residents. Cheers to that.