Feb 2 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Monday blocked the Trump administration from revoking legal protections for more than 350,000 Haitians in the U.S., preventing their potential deportation to a country that has been ravaged by gang violence.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes in Washington, D.C., halted the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's effort to terminate Haiti's Temporary Protected Status. The move would have taken effect on Wednesday despite spiraling violence there that has displaced more than 1.4 million people.
Reyes, who was appointed by Democratic former President Joe Biden, issued the ruling in a class-action lawsuit brought by Haitians seeking to stop the administration from exposing them to deportation by ending their legal status.
Reyes said in the ruling that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem likely violated the procedures required to terminate the protected status of Haitian immigrants in the U.S. as well as the U.S. Constitution's Fifth Amendment guarantee of equal protection under the law.
"Plaintiffs charge that Secretary Noem preordained her termination decision and did so because of hostility to nonwhite immigrants. This seems substantially likely," Reyes wrote.
The law firm representing the plaintiffs, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, praised the ruling, noting that Haiti remains extremely dangerous.
"This ruling recognizes the grave risks Haitian TPS holders would face if forced to return, and it ensures that they can remain here in the United States – as legislated by Congress - to continue their lives, contributing to their communities, and supporting their families," the firm said in a statement.
TPS is available to people whose home country has experienced a natural disaster, armed conflict or other extraordinary event. It provides eligible migrants with work authorization and temporary protection from deportation.
The Department of Homeland Security has moved to end the status for about a dozen countries as part of President Donald Trump's crackdown on immigration, saying TPS was always meant to be temporary and not a "de facto amnesty program."
Department spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin indicated in a social media post that the ruling would be appealed.
"Haiti's TPS was granted following an earthquake that took place over 15 years ago, it was never intended to be a de facto amnesty program, yet that’s how previous administrations have used it for decades. Temporary means temporary and the final word will not be from an activist judge legislating from the bench," McLaughlin said.
Haitians were first given TPS in 2010, after a devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck their country. The U.S. has repeatedly extended the status, most recently under the Biden administration in July 2024.
The department at that time extended TPS for another 18 months through February 3, 2026, citing "simultaneous economic, security, political, and health crises" in Haiti, fueled by gangs and a lack of a functioning government.
Shortly after Trump took office, his administration tried to curtail those humanitarian protections for Haitiansin February 2025, when Noem moved to truncate the Biden-era extension so it would expire in August.
After a federal judge in New York in July ruled Noem lacked statutory authority to do so, her department in November moved to terminate Haiti's TPS status, saying there were "no extraordinary and temporary conditions" in the country that would prevent migrants from returning.
UNICEF estimated in October that over 6 million people - more than half the population, including 3.3 million children - need humanitarian assistance.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston and additional reporting by Ismail Shakil and Andrew Chung; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi, Lisa Shumaker, Cynthia Osterman and Michael Perry)
