Judge says DHS can't end protected status for Haitian migrants this year

The Trump administration cannot cut off legal status and work permits for hundreds of thousands of Haitian migrants this fall, a federal judge ruled late Tuesday.

The ruling by Brooklyn-based U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan, who was nominated by former President George W. Bush in 2006, prevents Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem from following through on a plan to revoke temporary protected status, or TPS, of Haitians living in the U.S. under the program on Sept. 3, a few months before their status was set to expire under a Biden-era deadline.

Nearly 350,000 people from Haiti are currently enrolled in the TPS program, which allows migrants to remain in the U.S. if their home country is unsafe due to war or natural disaster. The federal government first granted TPS designation to Haiti in 2010, and the Biden administration extended it for Haitian migrants until February 2026.

DHS announced Friday that benefits will instead end in September, and unless migrants qualify for some other form of legal status, they will lose their right to work and may face deportation.

In his ruling Tuesday, Hogan sided with a group of Haitian migrants who sued over the end to TPS for the Caribbean nation. The judge wrote that Noem "does not have statutory or inherent authority to partially vacate a country's TPS designation."

Hogan said the DHS secretary "cannot reconsider Haiti's TPS designation in a way that takes effect before February 3, 2026, the expiration of the most recent previous extension."

"Plaintiffs have enrolled in schools, taken jobs, and begun courses of medical treatment in the United States in reliance on Haiti's TPS designation lasting until at least February 3, 2026," Hogan wrote in the 23-page ruling.

The White House says the administration will appeal the ruling.

"District courts have no authority to prohibit the Executive Branch from enforcing immigration laws or from terminating discretionary temporary benefit programs," White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement. She added that the administration "trusts that this unlawful order will meet the same fate similar injunctions have met in the Supreme Court. And President Trump will continue delivering on his promises to end the exploitation of our immigration system."

DHS argued last week that TPS is intended to be temporary, and the "environmental situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home." But advocates warn Haiti is wracked by persistent gang violence and health problems.

The Trump administration has pushed to wind down TPS for several other countries, including Venezuela and Afghanistan. The Supreme Court allowed the administration to end TPS for Venezuelan migrants in a late May decision, reversing a lower court ruling.