Judge blocks Trump administration from ending protections for Haitians : NPR

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — A federal judge on Monday blocked the end of protections that have allowed roughly 350,000 Haitians to live in the U.S., dealing President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda another legal, though perhaps temporary, setback.

U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes in Washington granted a request to pause the termination of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians while a lawsuit challenging it proceeds. The termination, which was set for Tuesday, “shall be null, void, and of no legal effect,” she wrote.

“We can breathe for a little bit,” said Rose-Thamar Joseph, the operations director of the Haitian Support Center in Springfield, Ohio.

Reyes said in an 83-page opinion that plaintiffs were likely to prevail on the merits of the case, and that she found it “substantially likely” that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem preordained her termination decision because of “hostility to nonwhite immigrants.”

The judge, an appointee of President Joe Biden, said Noem did not have “unbounded discretion” and was required to consult with other agencies on conditions in Haiti. The ruling cited Noem’s own words three days after announcing an end to Haitian protections, calling for a travel ban from Haiti and “every damn country that has been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies.”

While the ruling grants temporary relief to Haitians, the next legal steps were unclear.

Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin denounced the ruling as “lawless activism.”

“Haiti’s TPS was granted following an earthquake that took place over 15 years ago,” she said. “It was never intended to be a de facto amnesty program, yet that’s how previous administrations have used it for decades.”

DHS says Haiti has improved, but community leaders say it’s still unsafe

Temporary Protected Status can be granted by the Homeland Security secretary if conditions in home countries are deemed unsafe for return due to a natural disaster, political instability or other dangers. While it grants TPS holders the right to live and work in the U.S., it does not provide a legal pathway to citizenship.

Haiti’s TPS status was initially activated in 2010 after a catastrophic earthquake and has been extended multiple times. The country is racked by gang violence that has displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

The Trump administration has aggressively sought to remove the protection, making more people eligible for deportation. The moves are part of the administration’s wider, mass deportation effort.

In addition to the migrants from Haiti, Noem has terminated protections for about 600,000 Venezuelans, 60,000 people from Honduras, Nicaragua and Nepal, more than 160,000 Ukrainians and thousands of people from Afghanistan and Cameroon. Some have pending lawsuits in federal courts.

“If the termination stands, people will almost certainly die,” attorneys for Haitian TPS holders wrote in a court filing in December. “Some will likely be killed, others will likely die from disease, and yet others will likely starve to death.”

They say the decision to end Haiti’s status was motivated by racial animus, and Noem failed to consider whether there was an ongoing armed conflict that would pose a “serious threat” to personal safety, as required by law.

DHS said conditions in Haiti had improved. In a court filing in December, attorneys for the administration said the plaintiffs’ claims of racial animus were based on statements “taken out of context, often from other speakers and from years ago, and without direct links to the Secretary’s determinations.”

“Rather, Secretary Noem provided reasoned, facially sufficient explanations for her determinations.” they said.

A government notice in November announcing the termination said there had been some positive developments for Haiti, including authorization of a new, multinational force to combat gangs. Noem determined allowing Haitians to remain in the U.S. was against the national interest, the notice said.

Jerome Bazard, a member of the First Haitian Evangelical Church of Springfield, said it’s still too dangerous for many in his community to return to Haiti.

“They can’t go to Haiti because it’s not safe. Without the TPS, they can’t work. And if they can’t work, they can’t eat, they can’t pay bills. You’re killing the people,” he said.

Haitians in Springfield are fraught with uncertainty

Earlier Monday, two dozen faith leaders and hundreds of congregants in Springfield sang and prayed together in support of Haitian migrants who feared their protected status could end this week. They were hopeful that the federal judge might intervene.

Uncertainty over TPS has deepened worries for the city’s already embattled Haitian community.

Trump denigrated the community of about 15,000 Haitians while campaigning in 2024 for a second term, falsely accusing its members of eating their neighbor’s cats and dogs as he pitched voters on his plans for an immigration crackdown. The false claims exacerbated fears about division and anti-immigrant sentiment in the mostly white, working class city of about 59,000 people.

In the weeks after his comments, schools, government buildings and the homes of elected officials received bomb threats.

Since then, Haitians in Springfield have lived in constant fear that has only been exacerbated by the federal immigration crackdowns happening in Minneapolis and other cities, said Viles Dorsainvil, a leader of Springfield’s Haitian Community Help and Support Center.

Many of the Haitian children in Springfield are U.S. citizens who have parents in the country illegally. Some families are too afraid to send their kids to school, Dorsainvil said. If they are detained, he said, some parents have signed caregiver affidavits that designate a legal guardian in hopes of keeping their kids out of foster care.

Volunteers from nearby towns have offered to deliver food to those afraid to leave home, Dorsainvil said. Others have been stockpiling groceries in case immigration officers flood the area.

Some, he said, have been receiving desperate calls from family members abroad urging them to leave. “They keep telling them that Springfield is not a safe place now for them to stay.”

Lynn Tramonte, executive director of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance, said the court’s “11th-hour reprieve is, of course, welcome. But people can’t live their lives like this, pegging their families’ futures to a court case.”