Haitian TPS holders, labor union sue Trump administration over TPS rollback | Breaking News

Nine Haitian Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders, along with the Haitian Evangelical Clergy Association and 32BJ, a US-based branch of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) have sued the Trump administration for cutting Haiti’s TPS extension despite ongoing gang violence and political turmoil forcing many to flee.

Filed Friday afternoon, March 14, in federal court, the lawsuit argues that the rollback violates immigration law and is driven by racial bias against Black and non-white immigrants, unjustly stripping protections from Haitians as their country faces worsening violence. The case is one of several legal challenges to the administration’s TPS cuts, including lawsuits in Massachusetts and California on behalf of Haitian and Venezuelan TPS holders.   

“The termination of TPS is motivated by President Trump’s long-standing racial animus towards Haitians and other immigrants from countries with predominantly Black populations, not the law or the facts,” said Roxana Rivera, assistant to the president of 32BJ, in a press release. 

“We are filing this suit to stand up for the Haitians in our workforce and our communities, and to stand against racist bullying and the undermining of the rule of law.”

The plaintiffs have tapped a high-profile immigration lawyer, Ira Kurzban, with Supreme Court experience, to join the case.

“Trump and Noem’s actions are illegal under the TPS statute and our international promise that we will never return people to countries where their lives or freedom are threatened,” said Kurzban of Kurzban Kurzban Tetzeli and Pratt. 

“The actions challenged in this complaint represent a depth of cruelty typical of authoritarian and fascist governments but inconsistent with our values and history as a welcoming nation.”

In February 2025, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) moved to “partially vacate” the Biden administration’s 18-month TPS extension for Haiti, reducing it to 12 months and setting a new expiration date of Aug. 3, 2025. Critics argue that the rollback defies standard review procedures and increases the risk of mass deportations to a country deemed unsafe even by U.S. agencies.

Brian Concannon, executive director of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) noted how the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recently deemed Haiti unsafe when they extended their flight ban into Port-au-Prince through Sept. 8, 2025, which, to Concannon, shows the importance of this lawsuit.

“You have the technical people saying there’s big problems here, and then you have the president saying we need to send Haitians back, and that seems to me to be quite a political decision,” he told The Haitian Times.

Concannon said the lawsuit is crucial as the administration ramps up a messaging campaign urging immigrants to self-deport, an effort he argues is unrealistic. 

“I mean, how are you going to self-deport? There [are] no planes. There’s like a few flights on Sunrise Air to Cap-Haitian, but not something that’s going to [allow] 500,000 people to go on. And, but even if the U.S. starts deporting people, they’re going to be sending them into an airport where commercial planes aren’t allowed to fly,” he said.

Pastor Samuel Nicolas, president of the Haitian Evangelical Clergy Association, said Haitian communities are grappling with uncertainty and distress.

“The sudden curtailing of Haiti’s TPS designation has created tremendous fear and stress among hundreds of thousands of law-abiding and hardworking TPS holders and their families, many of whom are the parishioners of our congregations and which include children born in the United States who should not be forced to choose between their country and their parents,” Nicolas said. 

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