Supreme Court to Hear TPS Appeal for 350,000 Haitians

The Department of Homeland Security stated that the TPS program for Haiti was never intended to be a de facto asylum program, yet previous administrations have used it that way for decades.

Amy Fischer, Director of Refugee and Migrant Rights at Amnesty International USA, stated that if the Supreme Court rules in favor of the administration, it would be like having the rug pulled out from under you. “We know that people simply cannot be deported safely to Haiti,” Fischer said.

Last month, a spate of deadly gang assaults occurred in Haiti’s Artibonite region, killing dozens and causing thousands to flee their homes.

Earlier this month, armed attacks on a police station in the commune of Marigot in Haiti’s south left at least six dead, according to police. Haitian rights groups like Defenders Plus state that violence is reaching areas that were once seen as havens of peace. Armed groups block roads and key supply routes in Haiti, making access to necessities near impossible in some cases.

Communities in Haiti face daily challenges accessing food, water, and basic services due to rampant insecurity, said Rachelle Arnoux, the interim country director in Haiti for CARE. Two weekends ago, rival armed groups fought in a flare-up of violence in Cite Soleil, described by the MSF team as the worst they have seen in the area in two years.

Jerome Fritsch, a physician at the MSF hospital in Cite Soleil, said the gang violence is hindering people from seeking much-needed medical care.

The violence in Cite Soleil lasted until last Wednesday, but the team still has its guard up, ready to seek shelter as needed and move patients away from windows where they could be exposed. “We have no idea if tomorrow it’s going to start again,” Fritsch said.

According to an Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) projection for March to June 2026, 52 percent of Haiti's population are experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity.

This month, rainfall triggered severe flooding in Haiti’s North-West department, killing at least 12 people, flooding more than 1,000 homes, displacing people, and leading to agricultural and livelihood losses, according to the United Nations’ humanitarian office.

Ysmael stated that everything has gone up in price in Haiti, including the fare for a ride on a tap-tap bus and the cost of putting dinner on the table, due to fuel price hikes linked to the Iran war. “Everything has gone up,” Ysmael said in a World Food Programme video.

Guerline Jozef, head of The Haitian Bridge Alliance, an advocacy group that focuses on migration issues facing Black migrants, said deportation is not an option right now. If TPS holders are stripped of their status and deported, the results could be catastrophic, rights groups have stated.

Approximately 750,000 households in Haiti receive remittances from Haitians in the US, according to Manuel Orozco, director of the Migration, Remittances, and Development Program at the Inter-American Dialogue.

About 40% of remitters in the US sending money to Haiti are likely on TPS, Orozco said. According to the Inter-American Dialogue, Haitian migrants’ transfers went from 12 percent of Haiti’s GDP in 2012 to more than a quarter in 2022. Remittances are Haiti’s main source of foreign exchange, the think tank stated, noting the funds mainly help sustain private consumption, pay for school fees as well as healthcare and thus end up improving the country’s human development outcomes and mitigate the incidence of poverty.

“If we cut off those ties that Haitians in the United States have to be able to send back that money, we can only predict that it will force more people to leave Haiti, searching for safety and stability,” Fischer said. At a UN Security Council session on Haiti this month, leaders recognized some progress in the security situation.

There is a new multinational force known as the Gang Suppression Force, with US backing, which aims to stabilize Haiti and make the country capable of functioning without the foreign force.