A coalition of 19 Democratic prosecutors asked the United States Supreme Court to maintain Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for thousands of Haitians, as a federal court in Washington ruled last week, which blocked the attempt by President Donald Trump’s Administration to end that benefit.
On February 3, Judge Ana Reyes of the Washington District Court temporarily blocked the end of TPS, which was set to expire that day, for thousands of Haitians, concluding that the Department of Homeland Security did not have the facts on its side “or, at least, has ignored them” by insisting that the situation in Haiti has changed and the Haitians must return.
The Trump Administration appealed that decision on TPS, which allows immigrants to live and work legally in this country and is granted to citizens of various countries (Haiti, Venezuela, Ukraine, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, among others) who cannot return safely due to armed conflicts, natural disasters or humanitarian emergencies, they indicate in a joint statement.
Haitian citizens became eligible after an earthquake struck the country in 2010, and TPS has since been renewed as Haiti faced a series of crises, including widespread armed gang violence and the 2021 assassination of president Jovenel Moise, a crime for which several people, including his wife Martine, have been charged.
Despite the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Haiti, the Trump administration decided last year to end protection for Haitian TPS beneficiaries, who represent nearly a quarter of the total beneficiaries nationwide.
The attorneys general, who joined the case as friends of the court, argued to the Supreme Court, the nation’s highest judicial forum, that canceling TPS for Haitians would jeopardize public health, safety and local economies, in addition to upending the lives of countless families and devastating communities across the United States.
They also noted that eliminating TPS would cause chaos for hundreds of thousands of families, including US citizens living with a Haitian relative with TPS. In 2022, more than 200,000 citizens, including some 87,000 children, lived with a Haitian with TPS.
The attorneys general emphasized in their petition to the court that revoking the legal status of these individuals would put countless families in an impossible situation, according to the statement.
“Parents with TPS would be forced to choose between abandoning their children and returning to Haiti alone, taking their families with them to a dangerous and unknown country, or remaining in the United States without legal status and in constant fear of separation and deportation,” they warned.
The US Supreme Court said it will hear arguments on Trump’s initiative to end protections for people fleeing war and natural disasters in countries around the world, including Haiti and Syria.
