The ruling removes an earlier court barrier to terminating temporary protected status for Haitians, exposing many recipients to lost work authorization, detention and possible deportation.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
A federal judge cleared the Trump administration to terminate temporary protected status for approximately 350,000 Haitians on Wednesday after a Supreme Court ruling sharply limited judicial review of federal TPS decisions.
U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes withdrew her previous order preventing the administration from ending the protections, concluding that TPS for the affected Haitian migrants “is no longer in effect” following the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision in June, Bloomberg Law reported.
The decision leaves many Haitian TPS recipients facing the loss of federal work authorization and greater exposure to immigration detention and deportation.
Businesses employing large numbers of Haitian workers had already begun preparing for the program’s termination. Immigration specialists said layoffs were underway, while employers in health care, food service, retail and long-term care anticipated staffing shortages as workers lost permission to remain employed legally.
The Department of Homeland Security has characterized TPS as a “de facto amnesty program” and argued that Congress created it to provide temporary relief rather than permanent legal protection.
Temporary protected status allows the federal government to shield certain foreign nationals from deportation when armed conflict, natural disasters or other extraordinary conditions make it unsafe for them to return home. The Supreme Court’s ruling is expected to affect not only Haitian recipients but the wider program covering about 1.7 million people from 17 countries.
The Trump administration has sought to terminate protections for immigrants from 13 of those nations.
Opponents of the Haitian termination maintained that conditions in Haiti remain too dangerous for large-scale returns. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., condemned the decision and said several countries whose nationals are losing protection have become increasingly unstable.
“This is an embarrassment for the United States of America. There is no safe place to return for TPS holders from places like Haiti and Yemen and Venezuela and Syria. In fact, in those places I just mentioned, the situation is not stabilizing, getting better; it is getting worse,” Murphy told The Washington Post.
The Haitian Legal Defense and Education Fund asked Reyes to temporarily prevent the deportation of Haitians losing TPS. The organization cited widespread violence in Haiti that it said “demonstrates a pattern of crimes against humanity.”
Reyes declined to issue the requested protection.
Immigration attorney Ira Kurzban, who represents Haitian TPS holders, said he expects federal arrests to rise following the ruling. He encouraged migrants who may qualify for another form of relief to continue pursuing their cases rather than abandon the legal process.
“I tell my clients to fight, fight, and fight,” Kurzban said.
“Nobody is telling a client to make up anything, but if there is a claim, I think the worst thing they can do is just give up.”
Attorneys are considering a separate constitutional challenge alleging that the administration’s decision to terminate Haitian TPS was motivated by racial discrimination, Kurzban said. The Supreme Court left that potential avenue of litigation open even as it barred courts from reviewing the underlying TPS determination itself.
The administration is also pursuing changes beyond the TPS program. A newly announced asylum rule would allow asylum officers to place certain applicants directly into deportation proceedings without first providing an interview.
The combined policies could accelerate removals by narrowing temporary protections and reducing procedural steps for some migrants seeking asylum.
The economic effects are expected to extend beyond the individuals losing status. Emi MacLean, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, said employers and communities that depend on Haitian workers could face significant disruption.
“It will be a huge loss to many people and communities,” MacLean said.
Wednesday’s ruling removes one of the final judicial barriers preventing the administration from ending Haitian TPS. Unless affected migrants obtain another lawful status or prevail in a new constitutional challenge, many could lose their jobs and become eligible for arrest and deportation.
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