US Federal Judge Allows Trump to End Protections for 350,000 Haitians

A US federal judge in Washington D.C. has granted the Trump administration’s decision to end temporary protected status (TPS) for approximately 350,000 Haitians on Wednesday (5/8) local time.

The move leaves the affected Haitians at risk of deportation back to the Caribbean nation, which remains under the shadow of famine.

US District Judge Ana C. Reyes of the US District Court for the District of Columbia had previously blocked the Trump administration’s move to end TPS protections for Haitians, and a federal appeals court subsequently upheld that blocking decision.

However, the US Supreme Court ruled in June by a 6-3 vote that TPS designations cannot be reviewed by courts under federal law, a decision that could potentially affect immigrants from Haiti, Syria, and other countries deemed highly dangerous by the US State Department.

Reyes reversed her decision after considering the Supreme Court ruling, stating in her new order on Wednesday that “the Supreme Court’s ruling overturns this court’s decision in the Court Order dated 2 February 2026,” rendering the court order that suspended the termination of Haiti’s TPS status “no longer in effect”.

Approximately 200,000 Haitian TPS holders are employed, with large concentrations of workers in the healthcare, food services, warehousing, retail, and long-term care sectors, according to a government data analysis by the immigration advocacy group FWD.us cited by The Washington Post.

The US State Department has placed Haiti at Level 4, the highest travel advisory level, citing risks of crime, kidnapping, terrorism, civil unrest, and limited healthcare services.