Media Contact: 

Nicholas Reiner, communications@aclusocal.org (213) 977-5252 
Palmira Figueroa, pfigueroa@ndlon.org, (425) 301-2764

Jose Palma, jpalma@ndlon.org

Sandra Hernandez, hernandezs@law.ucla.edu (310) 386-5768

media@haitianbridge.org

SAN DIEGO — Four Haitians with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) today sued the Trump administration over its unprecedented attempt to strip 500,000 Haitians of lawful immigration status. Haitians have been granted protection–some for years–because it is unsafe for them to return to Haiti. 

Plaintiffs in NTPSA v. Noem Amend Complaint That Also Challenges Lawless Vacatur and Termination of TPS Affecting 600,000 Venezuelans

The plaintiffs challenge DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s “partial vacatur” of the extension and redesignation of Haiti for TPS that the Biden administration granted in July 2024. Noem’s decision means 500,000 Haitian TPS holders who were entitled to protection until February 2026 risk losing protection in August 2025. The Haitian plaintiffs join NTPSA v. Noem, the case filed by the National TPS Alliance and seven Venezuelan TPS holders on February 19, which also challenges the revocation of an 18-month extension of TPS for Venezuelans that the Biden administration granted in January. Together, the suit now seeks to protect over a1 million Haitian and Venezuelan TPS holders. 

“We reject the Trump administration’s racist and inaccurate effort to undermine TPS and eliminate protections for TPS holders,” said Jose Palma, Co-coordinator of the National TPS Alliance, a member-led organization of tens of thousands of TPS holders from across the country which is the lead plaintiff in the case. “Haitian TPS holders, like all TPS holders, are lawfully present here pursuant to protection granted because it is not safe for them to return to their country right now.” 

“The administration’s partial vacatur for Haiti not only robs over 500,000 Haitians living in the U.S. of legal status and work permits,” said Guerline Jozef, Executive Director of Haitian Bridge Alliance, “but it will also place them in acute danger if they are forced to return to a country that is in the midst of an unprecedented economic and political crisis.”

“The Haitian community has faced unrelenting stigmatization by government officials. Stripping us of our legal status is the latest attack on Haitians, and one that cannot be allowed,” said Viles Dorsainvil, a plaintiff in Springfield, Ohio, and the founding director of Haitian Community Help & Support Center. “I am speaking out today because our community is suffering. We cannot safely return to Haiti, which is in crisis, and TPS has allowed us to be productive members of our communities. It must continue.”

At issue in the case is the administration’s unprecedented moves to rescind TPS extensions. Since Congress established TPS in 1990, no administration has ever moved to rescind it early, before the time period authorized by the law, until now.

The suit argues that DHS violated the Administrative Procedure Act because the law does not permit early terminations and failed to follow the necessary rules by rushing to its new decision without the required review. 

The suit also challenges the termination as motivated by racial animus in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Fifth Amendment guarantee of equal protection. During the campaign, and in announcing the new TPS decision, Secretary Noem and President Trump have consistently used racist tropes to dehumanize Haitians and Venezuelans. 

The plaintiffs are represented by the Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA), National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), the ACLU Foundations of Northern California and Southern California, and the Center for Immigration Law and Policy (CILP) at UCLA School of Law.

“The racial animus behind this Administration’s targeting of Haitians with TPS is clear,” said Erik Crew, staff attorney with the Haitian Bridge Alliance. “The Constitution prohibits official government action that is based on a racially discriminatory intent or purpose. These vacaturs cannot stand.”       

“The federal government’s attempt to end TPS for Haitians is illegal for the same reasons its attack on Venezuelan TPS is illegal,” said Ahilan Arulanantham, faculty co-director of CILP. “Haitians were guaranteed TPS through February 2026. The law clearly requires the federal government to keep that promise.”   

“Secretary Noem had no authority to ‘undo’ the Biden Administration’s lawful extension of humanitarian protection to Haitians. The Administrative Procedure Act requires reasoned decision-making, which this is not,” says Jessica Bansal, an attorney with NDLON.

“Haiti has been in a protracted humanitarian crisis. TPS exists exactly for this context,” said Emi MacLean, an attorney with the ACLU Foundation of Northern California.