Members of the National TPS Alliance demonstrate at the Supreme Court in Washington, DC, on April 29. The Supreme Court is examining the revocation of Temporary Protected Status for Haitian and Syrian migrants.
Alex Wroblewski/AFP via Getty Images
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Alex Wroblewski/AFP via Getty Images
Lawyers for Haitian immigrants filed a motion Tuesday asking the Supreme Court to throw out the Trump administration’s attempt to expel more than 330,000 Haitians from the United States.
The administration has repeatedly attempted to deport Haitians living legally in the United States under Temporary Protected Status, or TPS. TPS was enacted by Congress in 1990 to protect people who cannot return to their home countries because their safety would be endangered due to civil unrest or natural disasters.
In Haiti, an earthquake killed more than 200,000 people in 2010 and left the country with roaming gangs, cholera epidemics and no functioning government, conditions that persist today. The United States granted Haitians temporary protected status in 2010, and the designation has been extended since then.
Now, a group of TPS recipients claim that the Trump administration did not follow required legal processes before attempting to end those protections for Haitians. The Supreme Court, in an unusual move, agreed to hear the case before a lower federal appeals court had a chance to review it.
With a decision expected in late June, lawyers for the Haitians returned to the Supreme Court on Tuesday asking judges to dismiss the case because they said new evidence had been discovered that cast doubt on some of the Department of Homeland Security’s claims.
The motion states that the new DHS documents “contain further evidence that the termination of Haiti’s TPS designation was a predetermined outcome.” The motion stated that “career staff” recommended against ending the appointment, but were rejected by a “political appointee,” among other departures from standard practice.
The case depends on the text of the law underpinning TPS and whether courts can review the administration’s decision to end TPS for Haiti.
The administration in oral argument argued that courts cannot review the determinations of the executive branch. But under pressure from Judge Amy Coney Barrett, Attorney General John Sauer conceded that courts can review allegations of racial discrimination. The immigrants in this case have raised one such challenge: that the Trump administration revoked Haitian TPS because of their race.
With new documents still coming to light, the immigrants’ lawyers argue, the Supreme Court cannot answer that question.
“Until discovery is completed, the Court lacks a firm factual basis upon which to judge the merits of Defendants’ claims,” his motion responded.
The court will almost certainly ask the administration to respond.