Beneficiaries are required to provide this information to the government to participate in the program. Reyes said Immigration and Customs Enforcement could use that information to go after Haitian TPS holders, who President Trump has harshly criticized and promised to deport.
Attorneys for the Trump administration in court said the Department of Homeland Security would not necessarily target Haitian nationals if TPS expired, but they would be subject to the same kind of immigration enforcement activities that other immigrants who are unlawfully in the country face. Counsel also said that some TPS holders may no longer live at the same addresses as when they registered for the program.
Reyes said the federal government did not provide convincing evidence that it would suffer irreparable harm if the Haiti’s TPS designation remains active while the case proceeds. The attorneys for the plaintiffs in the case, Miot v. Trump, have argued that if the termination went into effect and Haitian TPS holders were deported it would be very difficult if not impossible to remedy this if the courts determine their protection should have remained in place.
DHS officials previously said the federal government plans to appeal the decision all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary. In a separate but similar case in California, the highest court in the nation allowed TPS for Venezuela to end as the federal government appeals a lower court’s ruling that the country’s designation was terminated unlawfully.
The federal government has argued in court filings that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s decision to end Haiti’s designation should not be subject to judicial review, especially given that her termination was based on being “in the national interest.”
Attorneys for the Trump administration says Noem made her decision to terminate based on evidence and information she reviewed. They accused Judge Reyes in court documents of improperly acting as a “foreign policy expert” by reaching her own conclusion about the evidence in the case about conditions in Haiti.
The judge’s ruling comes the same day that a new UNICEF report was released saying the recruitment of children by armed groups in Haiti tripled last year as poverty and violence deepens across the troubled Caribbean country.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
The surge comes as gang violence displaces a record 1.4 million people across Haiti — more than half of them children whom experts say are left exposed and vulnerable, says UNICEF.
Local reactions
Vilès Dorsainvil, Haitian Community Help and Support Center president, is pleased by the ruling, which he says reflects a “balance of power” in the country, but he is expecting the case to go up to the Supreme Court.
“At the end of the day, terminating the TPS for Haitians is a decision that would put millions of lives at risk; there is no doubt about that,” Dorsainvil said. “As long as the judges can use the legal route and common sense to take decisions that reflect justice, dignity of human beings and all respect for human rights, I think that will continue to show that America can continue to be the country that it used to be.”
Dorsainvil and others are continuing to provide extra help to Haitian residents in Springfield, including by organizing grocery deliveries for people whose licenses are invalid or are afraid to leave their homes.
Note: This story is developing and will be updated.
RECENT LOCAL HAITI TPS COVERAGE
- Springfield City Commission meeting draws calls for unity
- Attorneys for Haitians push back on DHS request to let protections expire as case continues
- 3 Springfield houses of worship receive bomb threats
- Churches may help house thousands of Springfield children left behind if TPS expires
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