The U.S. Department of Justice asked the Supreme Court of the United States on Wednesday to allow the administration to proceed with ending deportation protections for more than 350,000 Haitian immigrants currently living in the United States. The emergency request is part of a broader legal battle surrounding efforts by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for several countries. If the designation is removed, many of the affected immigrants could become eligible for deportation.
The Supreme Court has already permitted the administration to roll back similar protections for Venezuelan migrants, while another case involving Syrian immigrants is still pending before the justices. Haiti first received TPS protection in 2010 after a catastrophic earthquake killed more than 300,000 people and devastated much of the country. During his first presidency, Donald Trump attempted to end Haiti’s TPS status, but the move was tied up in legal challenges and was never fully implemented before he left office. After returning to power, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced plans to terminate Haiti’s TPS designation, with the change scheduled to take effect on February 3. She said the decision reflected confidence that Haiti was entering a new phase and aligned with the administration’s broader goal of encouraging a “secure, sovereign, and self-reliant Haiti,” while acknowledging that challenges still remain in parts of the country.
However, in December five Haitian nationals filed a lawsuit seeking to block the move. Ana Reyes, a federal district judge, ruled in their favor last month, finding the decision to end TPS may have been influenced by racial bias and lacked sufficient legal justification. The administration appealed, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit declined to pause the lower court’s ruling. In its appeal to the Supreme Court, Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued that the lower court’s reasoning could threaten a wide range of immigration policies, warning it might undermine “virtually every immigration policy of the current administration.” TPS, created by Congress in 1990, provides temporary protection from deportation and work authorization for people from countries facing war, disasters, or other extraordinary conditions. The Trump administration has also moved to end TPS designations for several other countries, including Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Somalia, and Yemen.
