A federal judge in Washington confirmed Wednesday that hundreds of thousands of Haitian nationals living in the United States have lost their Temporary Protected Status, closing out a years-long legal fight that reached the Supreme Court.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes wrote that her earlier order blocking the Department of Homeland Security from ending Haiti’s TPS designation “is no longer in effect” following the Supreme Court’s ruling in Mullin v. Doe and a subsequent mandate from the D.C. Circuit.
The order affects an estimated 330,000 to 350,000 Haitians who have lived in the U.S. under the humanitarian program. DHS says the protections effectively ended on July 27, when the Supreme Court’s mandate issued.
“Haiti TPS ended when the Supreme Court mandate issued on July 27,” DHS General Counsel James Percival wrote on X. “I will give Judge Reyes kudos though for taking the L with grace and not doing something bonkers like many of her colleagues.”
The Supreme Court ruled in June that the TPS statute bars judicial review of the administration’s non-constitutional decisions to end TPS designations. The justices also found that the plaintiffs’ equal protection claim was unlikely to succeed, reversing the lower courts and sending the case back for further proceedings.
Former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem had determined Haiti no longer met the statutory requirements for TPS, arguing the program had been extended well past what Congress intended when it created it after Haiti’s 2010 earthquake. The designation stayed in place for 16 years across multiple administrations before the Biden administration expanded and extended it further.
The remaining litigation now centers on whether the administration acted with unconstitutional racial animus when it moved to terminate the designation. That claim, according to the Supreme Court, faces a steep climb.
DHS has instructed employers to reverify the work authorization of employees who held status under the Haiti TPS designation, since those employment documents are no longer valid.
The State Department currently maintains a Level 4 “Do Not Travel” advisory for Haiti, citing widespread gang violence, kidnappings and civil unrest in the country.
The policy fight became a flashpoint in the 2024 campaign after President Trump and running mate JD Vance pointed to the Biden administration’s expanded Haiti TPS policy as a driver of migration into Springfield, Ohio, where residents raised concerns about strained public services and traffic safety.
A federal judge in D.C. previously reported that empty pews have become common at Haitian church communities on Maryland’s Eastern Shore as families brace for enforcement action tied to the status change.
