According to the plaintiffs’ lawyers, failing to extend the designation would cause real and actual harm to the more than 350,000 Haitians who live in the United States lawfully under the TPS program. Overnight, they would lose authorization to live and work in communities across the nation, including Springfield, which has a large Haitian population.
Attorneys for the U.S. government claim that extending Haiti’s TPS harms and interferes with the Department of Homeland Security’s secretary’s determinations and findings related to national security and national interest.
The Trump administration has pointed out that the U.S. Supreme Court stayed a lower court decision in a similar case in California about Venezuelan TPS holders. The Supreme Court issued two orders that allowed Venezuela’s TPS designation to be terminated while that case is appealed.
The Trump administration says Judge Reyes similarly should grant a stay that allows Haiti’s TPS to expire as the case works through the courts.
But the attorneys for the plaintiffs say the Supreme Court’s orders in the California case were handed down through the court’s emergency dockets (also called the “shadow docket”) and contain no explanation of why the federal government’s request for a stay was granted.
The Trump administration seems likely to try to appeal Judge Reyes’ decision to the Supreme Court in search of a similar order as in the California case.
A DHS official earlier this week submitted a declaration that says Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not have specific plans to mobilize to places like Springfield and other areas with large Haitian populations in anticipation of Haiti losing TPS, which was supposed to expire on Feb. 3, until Judge Reyes issued a ruling pausing that cancelation.
But the DHS official said ICE already has had daily operations in places like Springfield and South Florida and officers would have acted to enforce immigration laws in light of the termination.
About the Author
