A federal judge has prevented the Trump administration from eliminating deportation protections for those from Haiti.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes moved to block the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from ending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for an estimated 350,000 Haitians.
“Plaintiffs charge that Secretary Noem preordained her termination decision and did so because of hostility to nonwhite immigrants,” Reyes wrote. “This seems substantially likely. Secretary Noem has terminated every TPS country designation to have reached her desk—twelve countries up, twelve countries down.”
“Kristi Noem has a First Amendment right to call immigrants killers, leeches, entitlement junkies, and any other inapt name she wants,” the decision adds. “Secretary Noem, however, is constrained by both our Constitution and the APA to apply faithfully the facts to the law in implementing the TPS program. The record to-date shows she has yet to do that.”
Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the Department will take the case to the Supreme Court. “This is lawless activism that we will be vindicated on. Haiti’s TPS was granted following an earthquake that took place over 15 years ago, it was never intended to be a de facto amnesty program, yet that’s how previous administrations have used it for decades,” she said. “Temporary means temporary and the final word will not be from an activist judge legislating from the bench.”
According to a Federal Register notice, the TPS was set to expire on February 3, 2026. “After reviewing country conditions and consulting with appropriate U.S. Government agencies, the Secretary determined that Haiti no longer meets the conditions for the designation for Temporary Protected Status,” the notice read.
