SPRINGFIELD, Ohio (AP) — A federal judge on Monday blocked the Trump administration from ending temporary protections that have allowed roughly 350,000 Haitians to live and work in the U.S.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes in Washington granted a request to pause the termination of Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, for Haitians while a lawsuit challenging it proceeds.
The TPS designation for people from the Caribbean island country was scheduled to end on Tuesday. South Florida is home to about 100,000 Haitians with TPS.
READ MORE: 'A step toward justice': Florida Immigration Coalition applauds judge's favorable Haiti TPS ruling
The federal judge said in an accompanying 83-page opinion that plaintiffs were likely to prevail on the merits of the case, and that she found it “substantially likely” that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem preordained her termination decision because of “hostility to nonwhite immigrants.”
“During the stay, the Termination shall be null, void, and of no legal effect,” the judge said in her two-page order, adding that for now, the termination has no bearing on their ability to work and to be protected from detention and deportation.
TPS can be granted by the Homeland Security secretary if conditions in home countries are deemed unsafe for return due to a natural disaster, political instability or other dangers. While it grants TPS holders the right to live and work in the U.S., it does not provide a legal pathway to citizenship.
The Florida Immigrant Coalition hailed Monday night's decision to block the Trump administration from terminating Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, for hundreds of thousands of Haitian immigrant as "a critical victory for families, workers, and communities across the country — especially here in Florida."
"This ruling recognizes what communities have long known: stripping legal status from hundreds of thousands of Haitians who have built their lives in the United States would have caused devastating and unnecessary harm," said Tessa Petit, who is FLIC's executive Director and originally from Haiti, in a statement released immediately after the judge's decision.
Miami Mayor Eileen Higgins said failure to stop the administration's efforts to end TPS for Haitians "would have created unnecessary disruption for workers, employers, schools, and neighborhoods."
"This ruling provides much-needed stability while the case moves forward," Higgins said in a statement. 'Miami is a city of immigrants, built by immigrants, and our Haitian community is part of what makes our city strong.”
The Trump administration has aggressively sought to remove TPS, making more people eligible for deportation. The moves are part of the administration’s wider, mass deportation effort.
In addition to the migrants from Haiti, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has terminated protections for about 600,000 Venezuelans, 60,000 people from Honduras, Nicaragua and Nepal, more than 160,000 Ukrainians and thousands of people from Afghanistan and Cameroon. Some have pending lawsuits in federal courts.
Haiti’s TPS status was initially activated in 2010 after a catastrophic earthquake and has been extended multiple times. The country is racked by gang violence that has displaced hundreds of thousands of people.
“If the termination stands, people will almost certainly die,” attorneys for Haitian TPS holders wrote in a court filing in December. “Some will likely be killed, others will likely die from disease, and yet others will likely starve to death.”
They say the decision to end Haiti’s status was motivated by racial animus, and Noem failed to consider whether there was an ongoing armed conflict that would pose a “serious threat” to personal safety, as required by law.
The Department of Homeland Security said conditions in Haiti had improved.
In a court filing in December, attorneys for the administration said the plaintiffs’ claims of racial animus were based on statements “taken out of context, often from other speakers and from years ago, and without direct links to the Secretary’s determinations.”
“Rather, Secretary Noem provided reasoned, facially sufficient explanations for her determinations.” they said.
A government notice in November announcing the termination said there had been some positive developments for Haiti, including authorization of a new, multinational force to combat gangs. Noem determined allowing Haitians to remain in the U.S. was against the national interest, the notice said.
WLRN's Sergio R. Bustos contributed to this story.
