A Washington federal court has stepped in to halt a looming immigration shift that threatened the legal status of hundreds of thousands of Haitians living in the United States, handing President Donald Trump’s broader immigration push a fresh courtroom obstacle, at least for now.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes issued an order Monday pausing the government’s plan to scrap Temporary Protected Status for Haitians. The program shields around 350,000 people from deportation and allows them to work legally in the U.S. Reyes ruled the planned termination, which was expected to take effect Tuesday, “shall be null, void, and of no legal effect,” pending the outcome of an ongoing lawsuit.
“We can breathe for a little bit,” said Rose-Thamar Joseph, the operations director of the Haitian Support Center in Springfield, Ohio.
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In a detailed 83-page opinion, Reyes indicated the legal challenge had a strong chance of succeeding. She concluded there was a “substantially likely” possibility that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had already made up her mind to cancel the protections, citing what the judge described as “hostility to nonwhite immigrants.”
Reyes, who was nominated to the bench by President Joe Biden, said Noem was obligated to consult with other federal agencies to evaluate Haiti’s conditions before reaching such a decision. The judge pointed to remarks Noem made shortly after announcing the policy change, when she pushed for travel restrictions on Haiti and “every damn country that has been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies.”
The decision offers Haitians temporary breathing room, though it leaves uncertainty about how the case will ultimately unfold.
Officials from the Department of Homeland Security quickly criticized the ruling. Agency spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin labeled the decision “lawless activism.”
“Haiti’s TPS was granted following an earthquake that took place over 15 years ago,” she said. “It was never intended to be a de facto amnesty program, yet that’s how previous administrations have used it for decades.”
Temporary Protected Status is granted when home countries face conditions such as natural disasters, armed conflict, or severe instability that make returning unsafe. While the designation allows recipients to live and work in the United States, it does not create a path to citizenship.
The U.S. first granted Haiti TPS in 2010 after a devastating earthquake leveled large parts of the country. The program has been renewed several times as Haiti continues to battle worsening gang violence and mass displacement.
The Trump administration has sought to dismantle those protections as part of a sweeping deportation campaign. Haitians are not the only group affected. The administration has also ended protections covering about 600,000 Venezuelans, 60,000 people from Honduras, Nicaragua and Nepal, more than 160,000 Ukrainians, and thousands from Afghanistan and Cameroon. Several of those actions are also being contested in federal court.
Attorneys representing Haitian TPS recipients warned in court filings late last year that losing protections would put lives at risk.
“If the termination stands, people will almost certainly die,” attorneys for Haitian TPS holders wrote in a court filing in December. “Some will likely be killed, others will likely die from disease, and yet others will likely starve to death.”
Lawyers for the migrants argue the policy shift is rooted in racial bias and contend Noem failed to properly evaluate whether Haiti’s security situation meets the legal threshold of posing a “serious threat” to personal safety.
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Government lawyers have pushed back against those claims. In court filings, they argued the allegations rely on statements “taken out of context, often from other speakers and from years ago, and without direct links to the Secretary’s determinations.”
“Rather, Secretary Noem provided reasoned, facially sufficient explanations for her determinations.” they said.
A federal notice released in November justified ending the program by pointing to signs of progress in Haiti, including the authorization of a multinational security mission to counter gangs. According to the notice, Noem determined continuing to allow Haitians to remain in the United States conflicted with national interests.
The courtroom battle reflects fears that extend well beyond immigration paperwork for many Haitian immigrants. Jerome Bazard, who belongs to the First Haitian Evangelical Church of Springfield, said returning to Haiti remains unthinkable for many families.
“They can’t go to Haiti because it’s not safe. Without the TPS, they can’t work. And if they can’t work, they can’t eat, they can’t pay bills. You’re killing the people,” he said in an AP report.
Earlier Monday, dozens of clergy members joined hundreds of worshippers in Springfield for a prayer gathering in solidarity with Haitian migrants worried their legal protections could vanish. Participants held onto hope that a judicial ruling might arrive in time.
The anxiety comes following the rising tension in the city’s Haitian community, which has faced mounting pressure in recent years. During his 2024 campaign, Trump falsely claimed members of Springfield’s Haitian population were consuming pets belonging to neighbors, remarks that intensified division and anti-immigrant rhetoric in the predominantly white, working class city of roughly 59,000 residents, where about 15,000 Haitians live.
Authorities reported bomb threats targeting schools, government offices, and elected officials’ homes in the weeks following those comments.
Community leaders say the fear has only deepened amid federal immigration crackdowns in other cities. Viles Dorsainvil of the Springfield Haitian Community Help and Support Center said families are living with constant uncertainty.
Many Haitian children in the area are U.S. citizens, but their parents lack legal status. Dorsainvil said some families have kept children home from school out of fear of detention. Others have signed caregiver affidavits assigning guardians to their children in case they are arrested.
Local volunteers have stepped in to help residents who are too frightened to leave their homes, delivering groceries and helping families stockpile food supplies in anticipation of possible enforcement actions. Dorsainvil said some migrants have also been receiving urgent pleas from relatives overseas urging them to relocate.
“They keep telling them that Springfield is not a safe place now for them to stay.”
Immigration advocates caution that while the ruling provides short term relief, it does little to resolve the long running uncertainty surrounding TPS. Lynn Tramonte, executive director of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance, said the legal victory does not erase the instability many families continue to face.
“The court’s ‘11th-hour reprieve is, of course, welcome. But people can’t live their lives like this, pegging their families’ futures to a court case.”
