Trump eyes Haitians; asks Supreme Court to revoke protections

Targeting Springfield, Ohio

By Ariana Figueroa
States Newsroom

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration Wednesday made an emergency request to the U.S. Supreme Court to allow the revocation of legal status for more than 350,000 Haitians, opening them up to deportations.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 9, 2024. (Photo by Jane Norman/States Newsroom)

U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer asked the justices to block a lower court’s ruling that found the Trump administration unlawfully ended Temporary Protected Status for Haiti.

TPS is a status given to nationals who hail from a country deemed too dangerous for return. The program grants work permits and deportation protections through renewal cycles ranging from six to 18 months.

As President Donald Trump aims to carry out mass deportations, the administration has moved to revoking legal status, such as TPS, for millions of immigrants, which means they then may be deported.

Administration argues status is temporary

In court filings, Sauer argued that the decision from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia harms the Trump administration’s “national interest and foreign relations.”

He added that TPS is supposed to be “temporary,” and notes that Haiti has had the designation since 2010.

The high court asked for a response by Monday from attorneys representing the TPS holders who initially sued.

Haiti first received TPS designation after a devastating earthquake in 2010, and had it renewed following the president’s assassination in 2021 by gangs.

The Trump administration moved to end TPS designation by Feb. 3. But Haitian TPS holders sued, arguing that the end of the designation did not take into account the country’s current condition. Haiti is dealing with gang violence and political instability.

Other TPS moves

The Trump administration has also asked the high court to allow for the stripping of TPS for 6,000 Syrian nationals. The Supreme Court has not ruled on that emergency appeal yet.

The Trump administration has sought to end legal protections for immigrants with TPS status.

So far, the administration has revoked TPS status for 13 of the 17 countries that were designated at the start of the president’s second term.

Those 13 countries are Afghanistan, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Haiti, Honduras, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen.

The four remaining countries with TPS expiring this year without an extension are El Salvador, Lebanon, Sudan and Ukraine.

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Ariana covers the nation’s capital for States Newsroom. Her coverage areas include immigration, congressional policy and legal challenges with a focus on how those policies impact the lives of immigrants and migrants coming to the U.S. Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.