Federal Appeals Court Upholds Temporary Protected Status For Over 300,000 Haitians

Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A federal appeals court has upheld a lower court’s ruling that the Department of Homeland Security had unlawfully terminated the Temporary Protected Status designation for several hundred thousand Haitians living in the United States.

In a 2–1 split decision issued on March 6, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied the Trump administration’s emergency request to suspend a lower court order that had blocked the termination of Haiti’s Temporary Protected Status (TPS). The decision leaves in place protections for about 330,000 Haitian nationals while the underlying legal challenge proceeds.

The majority argued that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) failed to prove that it would suffer irreparable harm if the lower court’s order were allowed to stand. The plaintiffs, Haitian TPS recipients who sued to prevent the revocation of the humanitarian immigration status, would face “substantial and well documented harms,” the majority wrote.

“As the district court detailed at length, the termination of TPS would have ‘devastating’ consequences for the plaintiffs, including risk of detention and deportation, separation from family members, and loss of work authorization,” reads the majority opinion, from which one judge dissented.

In dissent, Judge Justin Walker argued that TPS was never meant to be permanent and that the government should not be blocked from revoking the special protections, first granted 16 years ago.

“The Government is irreparably harmed by ‘an improper intrusion by a federal court into the workings of a coordinate branch of the Government,’” Walker wrote, adding that the Trump administration is likely to prevail in the underlying lawsuit as the government’s foreign policy decisions are generally not subject to judicial review.

The Epoch Times has contacted DHS and the Department of Justice, which represents DHS in the case, with a request for comment, including whether the administration intends to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Previously, DHS said it disagreed with the lower court’s decision to block the agency’s decision to terminate the special protections for Haitians.

Lawsuit Challenges TPS Termination

The case stems from a broader legal battle over the Trump administration’s attempt to terminate TPS protections for Haitians, which DHS announced in November 2025.

Temporary Protected Status is a humanitarian program that allows nationals of certain countries experiencing armed conflict, natural disasters, or other extraordinary conditions to live and work legally in the United States for a limited period.

Haiti was first designated for TPS in 2010 following a devastating earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people and severely damaged the country’s infrastructure. The designation has been repeatedly extended by successive administrations.

More than 330,000 Haitians currently live in the United States under TPS protections, according to the National Immigration Forum.

Several Haitian nationals filed the lawsuit in July 2025, arguing that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s decision to end TPS was inconsistent with the reality of conditions in Haiti.

The plaintiffs argued that the revocation violated the Administrative Procedure Act because the decision was “arbitrary [and] capricious,” and that it also violated the Fifth Amendment’s due process protections.

They said Haiti remains deeply unstable and unsafe for mass returns, pointing to the growing influence of violent gangs and the collapse of government authority in many parts of the country.

“Haiti is a nation in chaos,” the plaintiffs wrote in their complaint. “Violent gangs have taken over Haiti, establishing a mafia-like model that is so entrenched the country can barely function without their consent.”

U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes agreed with the plaintiffs in a Feb. 2 ruling, concluding that the administration’s termination decision violated federal law.

Reyes wrote that DHS had failed to properly consult with other government agencies before issuing the termination order, a step required under the TPS statute.

The ruling prevented TPS for Haitians from expiring on Feb. 3, the date the administration had scheduled for the program’s termination.

The Trump administration appealed the decision within days and asked the D.C. Circuit to lift the lower court’s order while the case proceeds.

The Trump administration has sought to revoke TPS designations for several countries, including Venezuela, Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Burma (also known as Myanmar). Many of those decisions have also been challenged in federal court.

Arjun Singh contributed to this report.