Trump admin asks Supreme Court to allow end of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians

The Trump administration has requested the Supreme Court to weigh in on its effort to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for more than 350,000 Haitians living in the United States. The request comes just days after the Department of Justice asked the court to allow the administration to terminate TPS for Syrian refugees as well. That case is also currently pending.

On Wednesday, Solicitor General D. John Sauer said that more cases are “waiting in the wings.” He asked the Supreme Court to place the issue on its regular docket in order to resolve the growing number of legal disputes. There are roughly a dozen pending lawsuits, according to a report by The Hill.

“Unless the Court resolves the merits of these challenges — issues that have now been ventilated in courts nationwide — this unsustainable cycle will repeat again and again, spawning more competing rulings and competing views of what to make of this Court’s interim orders. This Court should break that cycle,” Sauer said. 

TPS is intended to provide opportunities for foreign nationals who claim they cannot safely return to their home country due to temporary conditions like armed conflict or natural disasters. Haitians were first granted TPS in 2010 under President Barack Obama following an earthquake in the country. The designation has since been extended multiple times, most recently under President Joe Biden. The status protects recipients from deportation and allows them a pathway to obtain work authorization.

After returning to office, the Trump administration moved to roll back protections for 13 of the 17 countries currently designated for TPS. The administration has also argued that courts do not have the authority to block decisions to terminate the status.

The Supreme Court intervened last year to allow the Trump administration to move forward with stripping TPS protections from Venezuelans. The administration now argues that the same should be applied to Syrians and Haitians. 

The request also follows a decision last month by a federal district judge that temporarily blocked the administration’s attempt to end Haiti’s TPS designation. District Judge Ana Reyes ruled to postpone ending Haiti’s status, claiming President Trump’s decision to do so was racially motivated.