A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from ending sweeping deportation protections for hundreds of thousands of Haitian nationals.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes in the District of Columbia, appointed to the bench by President Joe Biden, granted a request on Monday to temporarily block the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from ending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for roughly 350,000 Haitians as a legal challenge plays out in court, according to the judge’s 83-page ruling. In a scathing opinion, the Uruguayan-born judge accused Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem of racism.
“Plaintiffs charge that Secretary Noem preordained her termination decision and did so because of hostility to nonwhite immigrants,” Reyes wrote. “This seems substantially likely.”
“Kristi Noem has a First Amendment right to call immigrants killers, leeches, entitlement junkies, and any other inapt name she wants,” the judge continued. “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.”
First created in 1990, TPS provides work eligibility and deportation protection to foreign nationals living in the U.S., including those unlawfully present, whose home countries are experiencing any number of conflicts or devastating natural disasters, making it potentially unsafe for them to return, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
The Trump administration and other critics, however, have long argued that TPS has become a de facto amnesty program, with TPS designations being extended continually for countries over many years. Haitian nationals were first granted TPS in 2010 following a major earthquake on the island, but have since enjoyed repeated extensions since then.
The Biden administration announced it was extending TPS for Haiti again in June 2024, citing ongoing political upheaval in the country. Then DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas extended TPS to hundreds of thousands of other foreign nationals just days before the Biden administration came to a close.
In February 2025, the Trump administration rescinded this extension for Haiti, arguing that the status has been abused over the years and serves as a magnet for more illegal immigration, a move that immediately attracted legal challenges from TPS supporters. TPS for Haiti was due to officially expire by Tuesday before Reyes’ last minute ruling.
Standing by its action, DHS has vowed to take the fight to the highest court in the nation.
“Supreme Court, here we come,” Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a public statement. “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,” McLaughlin continued. “Temporary means temporary and the final word will not be from an activist judge legislating from the bench.”
Since President Donald Trump re-entered the White House, DHS has also worked to end TPS for Somalia, Venezuela, Honduras, Nicaragua, Nepal, Ukraine and other countries.
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