A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration’s move to terminate long-running deportation protections for hundreds of thousands of Haitians in the United States, preventing their removal to the Caribbean nation.
In a 23-page order, Judge Brian Cogan of the Eastern District of New York wrote that Secretary Kristi Noem, who leads the Department of Homeland Security, “does not have statutory or inherent authority” to end the immigration protections, known as Temporary Protected Status. The administration moved to end the protection last week.
The Biden administration had extended those protections for Haitians through Feb. 3, 2026. Judge Cogan wrote that Ms. Noem would have to wait until then to decide not to renew the protections for Haitians according to what he called “the statutorily prescribed procedures Congress has enacted.”
Judge Cogan’s ruling was a setback for the administration’s effort to revoke protections for migrants fleeing from some of the world’s most unstable and dangerous places to fulfill a campaign pledge by President Trump, who vilified Haitians in a debate with President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and singled them out as deportation targets several times.
Hundreds of thousands of other immigrants who had been authorized to remain in the country, including Afghans, Cubans, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, also face deportation.
The Obama administration first granted Temporary Protected Status to Haitians in the United States in 2010 after a catastrophic earthquake. The program had been repeatedly extended until the Trump administration moved to cancel the designation in 2017.
Civil liberties groups sued to block the measure. A federal appeals court ultimately allowed the administration’s move to go forward, but the Biden administration withdrew the order before the designation for Haiti expired on March 5, 2021.
Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, plunged into government collapse and criminal anarchy after the assassination of the country’s president in 2021.
The country is now overrun by gangs who control much of the capital and countryside. The State Department places Haiti at the highest threat level in its travel advisory database, citing widespread violent crime and advising Americans not to visit.
But even before the current crisis, Haiti and migrants from the country — who are overwhelmingly Black — have been the focus of Mr. Trump’s vitriol. In 2021, Mr. Trump said that Haitian migrants were spreading AIDS to the United States, saying “it’s like a death wish for our country.” He also referred to Haiti as a “shithole” country in remarks denigrating Haitian immigrants.
Chris Cameron is a Times reporter covering Washington, focusing on breaking news and the Trump administration.
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