Boston Mayor Michelle Wu bashed the Trump administration for tossing protections that shielded roughly half a million Haitian migrants from deportation, saying the president’s decision was “cruel, arbitrary and illegal.”

Wu said Friday that President Donald Trump’s decision to end a set of protections known as temporary protected status for Haitian immigrants who came to the country while President Joe Biden was in office would impact “many” Haitians living in Boston.

“The Trump administration’s plan to end temporary protected status for Haitian immigrants in August is cruel, arbitrary, and illegal,” Wu said in a statement. “The current TPS determination was based on a thorough review of the dangerous circumstances in Haiti and cannot be shredded for political gain.”

Announced Thursday, Trump’s move to end TPS for Haitians means roughly 500,000 Haitian immigrants, who either crossed into the country illegally or came through a Biden-era legal program called humanitarian parole, would lose their work permits and could be eligible for removal from the country by Aug. 3.

Trump vowed to carry out mass deportations upon taking office, such as by scaling back the temporary protective status designation, which was widely expanded under the Biden administration to cover about 1 million immigrants.

The Trump administration has already moved to end temporary protected status for Venezuelans. Two nonprofit groups filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging that decision, and Wu indicated in her statement that her administration would look to defy the latest order as it relates to protections for Haitian immigrants.

“There are many Haitian immigrants living and working in Boston today under TPS who have full legal rights to be in this country and deserve that protection,” Wu said. “As of today, TPS is still in place and we will be working with members of the Haitian community to discuss the best legal path to protect the program.”

Wu’s remarks represent her latest move to defy Trump’s mass deportation efforts. Upon the president taking office, Wu drew the ire of Trump’s border czar Tom Homan, after stating that she would continue to protect immigrants in “every possible way” under the mass deportation threat.

The mayor cited Boston’s sanctuary status under the Trust Act, a 2014 local law that bars city police and other departments from cooperating with federal authorities on civil immigration detainers.

Wu was one of four sanctuary city mayors ordered to appear before a Republican-controlled Congressional committee on sanctuary polices and their impact on public safety. She will testify before the committee in Washington, D.C. on March 5.

Citing the president’s mass deportation threat, the Boston City Council voted last December to reaffirm the Trust Act.

City Council President Ruthzee Louijeune, the first Haitian American to be elected to the Council, described the president’s decision Thursday as a continuation of “his assault against the American people and our immigrant communities.”

“The Trump administration has removed legal protections for roughly 500,000 Haitian residents in the United States who escaped unspeakable and unrelenting fear,” Louijeune said in a statement. “They came to the United States following a legal pathway through temporary protected status.

“These are our bus drivers, our healthcare workers, our teachers and valued community members contributing to our economy,” she said.

Gangs control roughly 85% of Haiti’s capital. More than 5,600 people were reported killed last year in Haiti, according to the United Nations,

The Department of Homeland Security said in a news release, however, that the TPS system, created by Congress in 1990 to prevent deportations to countries battered by natural disasters or civil strife, has been “exploited and abused.”

Homeland Security said an estimated 57,000 Haitians were eligible for the program, which grants work authorization permits for people for up to 18 months at time, as of 2011. By last July, that number had spiked to 520,694.

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“For decades, the TPS system has been exploited and abused,” Homeland Security said in a statement announcing the decision. “For example, Haiti has been designated for TPS since 2010. The data shows each extension of the country’s designation allowed more Haitian nationals, even those who entered the U.S. illegally, to qualify for legal protected status.”

Homeland Security described the move as vacating a Biden administration decision to renew temporary protected status — which gives people legal authority to be in the country but does not provide a long-term path to citizenship — for Haitians.

The prior renewal extended Haiti’s TPS designation through Feb. 3, 2026. With Thursday’s move by the Trump administration, it would now end this Aug. 3.

By the end of the Biden Administration, roughly 1 million immigrants from 17 countries were protected by TPS, including people from Venezuela, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Sudan, Ukraine and Lebanon.

Material from Herald wire services was used in this report.