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President Trump can’t end temporary protected status (TPS) for 350,000 Haitians in the US, an appeals court has ruled.
On Friday, a majority 2-1 panel of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected the Trump administration’s attempt to pause a ruling from last month the blocked the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from ending TPS for Haiti.
TPS is a temporary immigration status that prevents individuals from designated countries from being deported because of fears for their safety, for reasons ranging from natural disasters to civil wars and violence.
One arm of President Trump’s flagship immigration policies has been to end TPS for millions of migrants in the US, opening the way for them to return home voluntarily or be deported.
DHS has argued that TPS was never intended to become a “de facto amnesty” for these migrants.
The specific decision being appealed in the case of Haitian migrants was issued by District Judge Ana Reyes in February. She ruled that former Secretary Kristi Noem’s decision to end TPS for Haitians violated termination procedures for the program and also the Fifth Amendment guarantee of equal protection under the law.
In its appeal, DHS noted that the Supreme Court has twice ruled in favour of ending TPS for Venezuelans.
U.S. Circuit Judges Florence Pan and Brad Garcia, both Biden appointees, said the situation in Haiti must be distinguished from the situation in Venezuela, and Haitians sent home would “be vulnerable to violence amid a ‘collapsing rule of law’ and lack access to life-sustaining medical care.”
Judge Justin Walker, a Trump appointee, dissented.
