The United States Department of Justice on Wednesday asked Supreme Court of the United States to let the administration proceed with ending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for more than 350,000 Haitian immigrants, a move that could expose many of them to deportation. ⚖️ The emergency request is part of an ongoing legal fight over the administration’s effort to end TPS protections for several countries. If the court approves the request, Haitian nationals currently covered by TPS would lose temporary protection from removal and their authorization to work in the United States.
Haiti first received TPS in 2010 after a catastrophic earthquake killed hundreds of thousands of people and devastated the country’s infrastructure. During his first term, Donald Trump sought to cancel Haiti’s TPS designation, but that effort was delayed by court challenges and never took effect before he left office. After returning to office, Homeland Security leadership announced plans to end Haiti’s TPS status, originally setting the policy change to begin in early February. The decision immediately faced legal opposition, and five Haitian nationals filed suit in federal court.
Ana Reyes temporarily blocked the policy, ruling that the administration had not adequately justified ending the program under federal law. She wrote that while public officials may express strong opinions, immigration decisions must still follow constitutional and administrative standards. The administration appealed, but a federal appeals court declined to overturn the lower court ruling. Now the Justice Department argues that allowing the decision to stand could weaken executive authority over immigration policy nationwide. đź“Ś Temporary Protected Status, created by Congress in 1990, shields people from deportation when conditions in their home countries remain unsafe.
