Immigration Advocates Welcome Court Ruling Regarding TPS For Haitians

NEW YORK, New York – Immigration advocates have welcomed a United States federal district court’s ruling blocking the Trump administration’s attempt to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for over 350, 000 Haitians living in the North American country.

A day before the Trump administration’s decision was expected to go into effect, Judge Ana C. Reyes of the Federal District Court in Washington on Monday rejected the US Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) motion to dismiss a lawsuit challenging termination of TPS for Haitians.

Haitians had filed a class-action lawsuit to block the administration from terminating their TPS status.

In a scathing ruling, Judge Reyes said that TPS for Haitians should remain in effect until the case is fully litigated.

“This is a critical victory for 350,000 workers and community members, including 125,000 Haitian New Yorkers,” Murad Awawdeh, president and chief executive officer of the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), an umbrella policy and advocacy organization that represents over 200 immigrant and refugee rights groups throughout New York

He told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that the judge found that the Trump administration was likely acting with ‘hostility to nonwhite immigrants’ and failed to consider actual conditions in Haiti when stripping legal status from Haitian Americans.

“Haitian Americans cannot safely return to the country due to political chaos, gang violence, and climate precarity in their homeland. We applaud the court for its thoughtful decision.

“The Trump administration’s attempt to end TPS for Haiti is another cruel attack on immigrant New Yorkers, one which would have forced people into the deportation pipeline regardless of the cost to human lives.

“Our Haitian neighbours are vital to the social and economic fabric of America and New York – they are essential workers, caregivers, healthcare workers, business owners, and so much more,” he said.

Awawdeh said while protecting TPS for Haiti is an important step to safeguarding the well-being of immigrant families who have long called this country home, “our neighbours need permanent protections to be shielded from the Trump administration’s insatiable cruelty”.

Awawdeh is calling on the New York Congressional Delegation and the US Congress to “act now and provide permanent protections for Haitians and all TPS holders”.

In her 83-page ruling, Judge Reyes said that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem lacked the authority to terminate TPS for Haitians and that her reasoning was flawed, stating that Noem’s reasoning “focuses on Haitians outside the United States or here illegally, ignoring that Haitian TPS holders already live here, and legally so”.

Judge Reyes also wrote that Noem blatantly ignored the economic benefits of Haitians living in the US and that the Trump administration’s decision was seemingly motivated by racial animus.

“The mismatch between what the secretary said in the termination and what the evidence shows confirms that the termination of Haiti’s TPS designation was not the product of reasoned decision-making, but of a preordained outcome justified by pretextual reasons,” Judge Reyes wrote.

“Plaintiffs charge that Secretary Noem preordained her termination decision and did so because of hostility to nonwhite immigrants. This seems substantially likely.”

The Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner law firm that represented the plaintiffs lauded the judge’s ruling.

“This ruling recognises the grave risks Haitian TPS holders would face if forced to return, and it ensures that they can remain here in the United States – as legislated by Congress – to continue their lives, contributing to their communities, and supporting their families,” said the firm in a statement.

But the Trump administration said it will appeal the ruling.

“Temporary means temporary,” said DHS Spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin in a statement. “And the final word will not be from an activist judge legislating from the bench.”

Last Friday, the California-based Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA), together with more than 300 labour unions, civil and human rights organizations, faith leaders, business voices, and community groups across the United States, had sent a letter to President Trump, Noem and Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, urging the reversal of the administration’s decision to terminate TPS for over 350,000 Haitian nationals living in the US.

HBA Executive Director Guerline Jozef told CMC that Trump seemed to be pushing ahead with ending TPS for Haitians, “despite significant gang violence, a humanitarian crisis, and instability” in the country.

“The Trump administration’s decision comes as Haiti is experiencing record-level gang violence, mass displacement of more than one million people, and state collapse, conditions so severe that the US government itself has designated Haiti a Level 4 ‘Do Not Travel’ country,” Jozef said.

“To simultaneously acknowledge that Haiti is too dangerous for Americans while forcing hundreds of thousands of Haitians to return is not policy — it is hypocrisy weaponized as governance,” she added.

In their letter to Trump, HBA and the groups wrote that “extending and redesignating TPS for Haitians is in the clear national interest of the United States, from a labor, business, and taxpayer perspective.

“This is not an appeal to charity; it is an appeal to pragmatic self-interest, grounded in facts,” says the letter, noting that, as of March 31, 2025, about 1.3 million people had TPS in the United States.

President of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), Liz Shuler, said that, “under the Trump administration, we have seen the consequences of an immigration agenda built on fear instead of facts.”

“This administration’s policies have pushed workers out of their jobs, destabilized families, and made communities less safe. Now, the administration is ending Temporary Protected Status for Haitians and escalating that harm —essentially firing more than 300,000 experienced, tax-paying workers who are essential to our economy, including our care, construction, hospitality, and manufacturing sectors.

“The AFL-CIO calls on the administration to extend and redesignate Haiti TPS, a common-sense step to protect workers, strengthen our economy, and avoid further destabilizing families and communities across the country,” she added.