A federal judge has moved swiftly to block Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s efforts to end the protected status for hundreds of thousands of Haitian migrants ahead of schedule, just days after the decision was announced.
New York Eastern District Judge Brian M. Cogan ruled that Noem—dubbed ICE Barbie for her love of stylized anti-immigration photo ops—acted unlawfully in trying to bring forward the end of Haiti’s Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation from February 2026 to this September. He ordered the original deadline to remain in place.
TPS is a special immigration status granted by the U.S. government to people from countries facing extreme conditions that make it unsafe for them to return home, such as war or natural disasters.
Haiti’s TPS status was first granted in 2010 after the country’s devastating earthquake and has been renewed multiple times. Earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security rescinded the 18-month extension of Haiti’s TPS status approved under former President Joe Biden, which was set to expire on Feb. 3, 2026.
Noem and DHS initially aimed to end the designation in August but pushed the deadline to September in a June 27 statement while declaring the country “safe” for Haitians to return.
In his ruling, Cogan found that Noem did not follow the timeline or procedures established by Congress for terminating TPS.
“Secretary Noem does not have statutory or inherent authority to partially vacate a country’s TPS designation; her partial vacatur must be set aside as unlawful under the Administrative Procedure Act,” Cogan wrote.
The judge noted that the court was not granting injunctive relief with the decision and that Noem remains free to “terminate TPS status for any country pursuant to the statutorily prescribed procedures Congress has enacted.”
In January, Noem also rescinded the Biden administration’s extension of TPS for Venezuela.
DHS estimates that more than 520,000 people from Haiti living in the U.S. are eligible for protected status, up from 57,000 in May 2011.
In a statement after Cogan’s ruling, Tricia McLaughlin, a DHS spokesperson, said Haiti’s TPS designation was never intended as a “de facto” asylum program.
“This ruling delays justice and seeks to kneecap the president’s constitutionally vested powers,” McLaughlin told Reuters. “We expect a higher court to vindicate us.”
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for further comment from the Daily Beast.
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