The Justice Department on Wednesday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene and allow the Trump administration to move forward with terminating Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, for more than 350,000 Haitians living in the United States. The emergency petition seeks to lift a district court injunction that has blocked the administration from carrying out its decision.
In a ruling that prompted the appeal, U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes concluded the administration likely acted with improper motive when it moved to end protections for Haitian nationals. Judge Reyes found that the termination process likely violated procedural requirements and the Fifth Amendment guarantee of equal protection.
Administrative decision and government rationale
The action at issue traces to a determination by Kristi Noem, who was then serving as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, that in November 2025 there were "no extraordinary and temporary conditions" in Haiti that would prevent the return of Haitian migrants. Based on that assessment, the administration moved to end TPS for Haitians.
The State Department continues to caution against travel to Haiti, warning of risks from "kidnapping, crime, terrorist activity, civil unrest and limited healthcare." The Justice Department framed its emergency request to the Supreme Court as necessary to permit the administration to implement its determination about Haiti.
Legal proceedings and judicial findings
The challenge to the administration's action was brought as a class-action lawsuit by Haitian plaintiffs seeking to block an end to their protected status and the prospect of deportation. On February 2, Judge Reyes issued a ruling in favor of the plaintiffs, finding that Secretary Noem likely violated the procedures required to terminate TPS and potentially infringed the Fifth Amendment.
In her opinion, Judge Reyes wrote that the plaintiffs allege "Secretary Noem preordained her termination decision and did so because of hostility to nonwhite immigrants. This seems substantially likely." The judge also referenced a December social media post by Noem and stated: "Kristi Noem has a First Amendment right to call immigrants killers, leeches, entitlement junkies and any other inapt name she wants. Secretary Noem, however, is constrained by both our Constitution and the (Administrative Procedure Act) to apply faithfully the facts to the law in implementing the TPS program."
The administration sought to pause Judge Reyes' injunction, but a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on March 6 declined to do so in a 2-1 decision. The D.C. Circuit wrote that Haitians returned to their country would "be vulnerable to violence amid a 'collapsing rule of law' and lack access to life-sustaining medical care."
Policy context and prior litigation
The move to end TPS for Haitian nationals is part of a broader effort by the Republican administration, which since January 2025 has pursued policies aimed at expanding the pool of migrants subject to deportation. The Department of Homeland Security under this administration has taken steps to terminate TPS designations for roughly a dozen countries, arguing that the program was intended to be temporary.
Earlier court actions have intersected with the administration's broader TPS policy. In October, the Supreme Court allowed an administration emergency request to terminate TPS for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants. In February, the administration asked the Supreme Court for permission to proceed in its effort to withdraw TPS from about 6,100 Syrians living in the United States.
Haitians were first granted TPS in 2010, following a devastating earthquake. The U.S. government renewed that designation repeatedly, most recently extending protections under the Biden administration. That most recent extension cited "simultaneous economic, security, political and health crises" in Haiti, pointing to gang activity and a lack of a functioning government, and provided protections through February 3, 2026.
Humanitarian indicators cited in litigation
International migration authorities report significant displacement in Haiti. The International Organization for Migration is cited as estimating that more than 1.4 million Haitians have been uprooted by violence and instability.
In its decision declining to pause the district court ruling, the D.C. Circuit emphasized risks to returned Haitians, including vulnerability to violence and difficulty accessing necessary medical care. The State Department travel advisory and the displacement figures are part of the factual background referenced in the litigation over TPS.
Administrative turnover and unrelated controversies
Kristi Noem was fired by President Trump on March 5 after months of controversy that included the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens by federal officers in Minneapolis and scrutiny over a $220 million advertising contract related to her and her department. The administration has said Noem's TPS decisions were not factors in her dismissal.
Procedural history specific to Haiti's TPS
The administration first sought last year to curtail Haitian protections when Noem moved in February 2025 to shorten a Biden-era extension so that it would expire last August. A federal judge in New York then ruled in July that Noem lacked statutory authority to truncate the extension. Following that decision, DHS in November moved to terminate Haiti's TPS designation.
Since returning to office, the administration has frequently resorted to emergency applications to the Supreme Court to allow implementation of policies blocked in lower courts. The Supreme Court has granted many such emergency requests brought by the administration since January 2025.
Current posture
With the Justice Department's emergency petition now filed, the fate of Haiti's TPS designation may hinge on whether the Supreme Court will permit the administration to implement its termination while litigation proceeds. That petition asks the high court to lift the injunction that has thus far prevented enforcement of the decision to end protections for Haitian nationals.