Supreme Court to Hear TPS Case for Haitians and Syrians

The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments on May 4, 2026, in a case challenging the Trump administration's decision to terminate temporary protected status for over 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians. Temporary protected status allows immigrants from designated countries to remain in the United States until conditions in their homelands improve, as determined by the Secretary of Homeland Security.

The administration's action followed President Trump's 2024 campaign promise to end protected status for Haitians, with the decision implemented one month after his January 2025 inauguration. The status for Haitians had been granted following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.

A federal appeals court reaffirmed the protections in a February 2026 decision, prompting the government's appeal to the Supreme Court.

U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes ruled that the decision to end protections for Haitians was influenced at least in part by racial animus. In response, the government argued in court filings that courts have improperly limited presidential authority granted by Congress to designate and terminate such statuses.

According to a court filing by Solicitor General D. John Sauer, "none of the relevant statements involve race, many were made before the election, and most have nothing to do with temporary protected status." Kristi Noem served as Secretary of Homeland Security during the initial decision.

The Supreme Court is not expected to issue a ruling until summer 2026. The case draws on a long history of U.S.-Haiti relations. In 1804, Haiti became the first independent Black nation in the Western Hemisphere after a revolution, though the U.S. recognized Haiti's sovereignty decades later, according to Haitian American author Georges Fouron in an article from The Marshall Project.

The U.S. occupied Haiti from 1915 to 1934. Haitian immigration to the U.S. increased during the 1960s and 1970s under dictator Francois 'Papa Doc' Duvalier. In the late 1960s, under President Richard Nixon, many Haitian skilled blue-collar workers and farm workers obtained green cards, Fouron said.

Between 1972 and 1980, 50,000 Haitians applied for asylum, but only 100 were approved, per the Haitian Lawyers Association. In 1980, amid the Mariel boatlift from Cuba, the vast majority of Cuban applicants received asylum. That year, President Jimmy Carter implemented the Haitian Program, detaining and repatriating Haitians; a federal judge struck it down two years later.

In 1986, President Ronald Reagan signed legislation granting amnesty to immigrants arriving before 1982. Temporary protected status was created under President George H.W. Bush. Haitians received it in 2010 post-earthquake.

The vessels' operators have not been publicly identified by the U.S. government. Haiti's foreign ministry has not commented as of April 2026. No publicly released evidence has documented claims of racial animus in the specific termination decision beyond the district court's ruling.