McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) — Four Haitians joined a lawsuit Friday against the Trump administration to keep their temporary protected status in the United States.
The group signed on to a lawsuit that was filed Feb. 19 by seven Venezuelans against Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and DHS after Noem announced that temporary protected status (TPS) would be lifted in April for 600,000 Venezuelans who had previously been granted an extension of these protections under the Biden administration allowing them to live and work in the United States for 18 months.
But President Donald Trump revoked the extension shortly after taking office.
And last month Noem announced that 500,000 Haitian TPS holders also will lose their protections by August 2025 and could also face deportation.
“These individuals cannot return safely to their country of origin. TPS allows them to live and work lawfully in the United States,” according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit now seeks to grant continued TPS for over 1 million Haitian and Venezuelans.
“We reject the Trump administration’s racist and inaccurate effort to undermine TPS and eliminate protections for TPS holders,” said Jose Palma, co-coordinator of the National TPS Alliance, which is part of the lawsuit. “Haitian TPS holders, like all TPS holders, are lawfully present here pursuant to protection granted because it is not safe for them to return to their country right now.”
If TPS is not extended for the Haitians “it will also place them in acute danger if they are forced to return to a country that is in the midst of an unprecedented economic and political crisis,” Guerline Jozef, executive director of Haitian Bridge Alliance, which is among groups representing the plaintiffs. Others include: the ACLU Foundations of Northern California and Southern California and the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at UCLA School of Law, and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON).
“Stripping us of our legal status is the latest attack on Haitians, and one that cannot be allowed,” said Viles Dorsainvil, a plaintiff in Springfield, Ohio, and the founding director of Haitian Community Help & Support Center. “Our community is suffering. We cannot safely return to Haiti, which is in crisis, and TPS has allowed us to be productive members of our communities. It must continue.”
The suit argues that DHS violated the Administrative Procedure Act because the law does not permit early terminations and failed to follow the necessary rules by rushing to its new decision without the required review.
“Secretary Noem had no authority to ‘undo’ the Biden administration’s lawful extension of humanitarian protection to Haitians. The Administrative Procedure Act requires reasoned decision-making, which this is not,” says NDLON lawyer Jessica Bansal.
On Feb. 20, DHS and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services posted an announcement in the Federal Register that Noem was reducing the length of TPS status issued for Haitians from 18 months to 12 months, and it will end on Aug. 3, instead of Feb. 3, 2026.
“In the case of Haiti, the designation was based on former (Homeland) Secretary (Alejandro) Mayorkas’ determination that ‘there exist extraordinary and temporary conditions in [Haiti] that prevent aliens who are nationals of [Haiti] from returning to [Haiti] in safety.’ Former Secretary Mayorkas, however, failed to evaluate whether ‘permitting the aliens to remain temporarily in the United States’ is not “contrary to the national interest of the United States,” the administration posted in the Federal Register.
The suit also challenges the termination as motivated by racial animus in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Fifth Amendment guarantee of equal protection.
“The Constitution prohibits official government action that is based on a racially discriminatory intent or purpose. These vacaturs cannot stand,” said Haitian Bridge Alliance lawyer Erik Crew.
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.
Read: Read More