US judge blocks Trump administration from ending temporary protected status for Haiti

ISTANBUL

A US federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s decision to terminate the temporary protected status for Haiti.

New York District Judge Brian Cogan ruled Tuesday that the US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem “does not have statutory or inherent authority” to terminate the immigration protections known as Temporary Protected Status (TPS).

On Friday, the Department of Homeland Security announced the decision, stating that the status for the country would expire on Aug. 3, with the termination set to take effect on Sept. 2.

The Biden administration had extended TPS for Haitians until Feb. 3, 2026, and Cogan stated that Noem must wait until that date to decide on ending the protections, citing the “statutorily prescribed procedures Congress has enacted.”

The judge also emphasized that Haitian TPS holders have enrolled in schools, secured employment, and begun medical treatments relying on the US government’s previous assurances about the protection’s duration.

“When the Government confers a benefit over a fixed period of time, a beneficiary can reasonably expect to receive that benefit at least until the end of that fixed period,” he wrote in his ruling.

Mired in political, economic, and social chaos, Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world. Last year its interim prime minister was banished, and gangs took over the capital, Port-Au-Prince.

Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has led an unprecedented crackdown on irregular migrants, including trying to revoke protections from groups given protected status under the previous administration.

Some groups had their protected status revoked without notice, giving the migrants in question only days or hours to leave the US, a country they had lawfully sought official status in.