The Trump administration will ask the Supreme Court to take up its case aimed at ending the protected immigration status of about 350,000 Haitians living in the United States.
“Supreme Court, here we come,” Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin wrote on X after a federal judge issued an order Monday night halting the termination of Temporary Protected Status for Haitian nationals.
The protections from deportation were set to expire Tuesday, but District Judge Ana C. Reyes of the District of Columbia halted the administration’s move to end the status, declaring Haitians living in the U.S. under TPS will be allowed to remain until there is further judicial review of the case.
At the end of November, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced she was terminating TPS for Haitians on Feb. 3 after a previous attempt to do so was blocked in the courts.
“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,” stated the announcement in the Federal Registrar.
TPS allows foreign nationals to live and work in the U.S. for a period of time, and is usually granted to citizens of nations experiencing war or recovering from a major natural disaster.
The U.S. granted TPS to Haitians after a catastrophic earthquake hit the island nation in 2010, leaving large sections in ruins. The status was extended through the Obama administration.
The first administration of President Donald Trump attempted to end the status for Haitians, but it remained in place due to court rulings and injunctions. President Joe Biden then redesignated Haiti for TPS in 2021.
Haiti’s temporary protected status was “never intended to be a de facto amnesty program, yet that’s how previous administrations have used it for decades,” McLaughlin said. “Temporary means temporary and the final word will not be from an activist judge legislating from the bench.”
Reyes issued a stern rebuke of Noem in her order Monday evening, asserting that the homeland security secretary “neither” has the “law” nor the “facts” on her side to end TPS for Haitians as she attempted to do.
“Secretary Noem, however, is constrained by both our Constitution and the [Administrative Procedure Act] to apply faithfully the facts to the law in implementing the TPS Program,” Reyes wrote in the 83-page order.
The Administrative Procedure Act dictates how federal agencies can make rules and regulations, and adjudicate them.
Trump’s DHS is continuing its efforts to remove illegal aliens from the U.S. and is encouraging self-deportation.
“Illegal immigrants can leave safely and travel normally if they self-deport now,” DHS wrote on X Monday.
DHS is offering illegal aliens who choose to self-deport a free plane ticket to their home country and $2,600 to help cover the cost of resettlement.