Attorneys representing Haitian immigrants have filed a motion asking the Supreme Court to dismiss a case, arguing that the court lacks a complete record of how the Trump administration decided to end temporary protective status for Haitians living in the United States.
Temporary protective status allows immigrants from countries experiencing armed conflict, natural disasters, or other extraordinary conditions to live and work legally in the United States. The Trump administration terminated this protection for Haitians, leading to legal challenges that have now reached the Supreme Court. The attorneys contend that newly discovered evidence is crucial to the case and that the court cannot make a fair decision without access to the full decision-making record.
The Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments in the consolidated case challenging the administration's effort to strip temporary protected status from hundreds of thousands of Haitian and Syrian immigrants. During the arguments, the conservative-leaning majority of justices appeared sympathetic to the Trump administration's position.
The Trump administration's solicitor general argued that the 1990 legislation establishing temporary protective status prevents courts from reviewing the Department of Homeland Security's decision to terminate the program. However, the lawyers representing Haitian and Syrian immigrants countered that the administration failed to follow proper legal procedures when ending the protections.
A federal judge in Washington, D.C. previously blocked the termination of temporary protective status for Haitians in February, citing racial animus as part of the motivation. During oral arguments, liberal justices raised concerns about whether the administration's decision was influenced by race, pointing to the president's past inflammatory statements about Haiti and other nations.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson questioned how the administration's discriminatory remarks should not be considered relevant to the case. The Trump administration argued those comments were taken out of context.
If the Supreme Court sides with the Trump administration, analysts say the administration would likely seek to end temporary protective status for all countries. Nearly 1.3 million people held temporary protective status when the second Trump administration began. Last year, the Supreme Court allowed the administration to strip temporary protected status from more than 300,000 Venezuelans through its emergency procedures.
The temporary protective status program, established in 1990, does not offer a pathway to citizenship but allows citizens from designated countries to remain and work in the United States if they cannot safely return home. The Department of Homeland Security has discretion to extend or terminate these designations.
The Supreme Court is expected to decide the case in late June or early July.