Attorneys for Haitian TPS holders on Monday morning filed a response to the government’s motion for a stay, urging the Supreme Court to deny the Trump administration’s request for emergency relief.
Local community members at a Monday press conference said that Haiti is not a safe country, pointing to the U.S. State Department’s Do Not Travel Advisory for American citizens.
“Even the U.S. government is asking Americans to not travel there because of the extreme violence and kidnapping and instability, and yet we are talking about deporting famil(ies) there,” said Biassu Pierre, a Haitian community organizer with Advocates for Basic Legal Equality.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security secretary determined there were no longer “extraordinary and temporary conditions” in Haiti that prevent Haitian nationals from returning there safely, Sauer’s application for a stay states. The secretary also concluded that continuing the nation’s designation was contrary to the national interest.
The Trump administration continues to insist that the DHS secretary’s decisions about TPS designation and termination are not subject to judicial review.
Monday event
A group of Springfield-area residents called Springfield Neighbors United filed an amicus curiae brief on Monday that says Springfield experienced long-term population decreases and economic decline before the Haitians arrived and brought “revitalization.”
“Haitian TPS holders have contributed to the workforce growth, significant local tax growth, business expansion, vibrant faith communities and growing schools in recent years, creating benefits that have been shared by the entire city, not just Springfield’s Haitian TPS holders,” ABLE attorney Renee Murphy said Monday. “We explained that when the administration made its decision to end the nation’s TPS, it did so without examining evidence from places like Springfield, where the economic and social benefits from the nation’s TPS holders here can be directly observed. Nor did it look at what will happen in contrast here and in communities like here if Haiti’s TPS ends.”
A delegation of Springfield advocates including Pierre, Haitian Community Help and Support Center President Vilès Dorsainvil, St. Vincent de Paul Director Casey Rollins, Central Christian Church Pastor Carl Ruby, Murphy and Springfield Neighbors United member Rev. Marian Stewart, will visit the Supreme Court Tuesday to advocate for the Supreme Court to deny the stay and to not place the case on its “shadow docket.”
Murphy, ABLE managing attorney for its children’s education rights practice group, said Monday that the Trump administration should have considered and the Supreme Court now should consider the “harm that Springfield and communities like it will suffer if Haitian neighbors are suddenly and forcibly taken away.”
“The amicus brief is intended to assist the court by providing that local context about the real world impact of patient TPS holders here and the real-life impact of the court’s decision about whether their legal status will remain in place while the courts develop all of the facts and law in a full court process,” Murphy said.
The termination of Haiti’s TPS designation would have taken effect on Feb. 3, but five Haitian TPS holders filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of the process the DHS secretary used to make the determination.
The Trump administration alleges the DHS secretary cancelled the designation after consulting with the State Department, reviewing statutory criteria, assessing country conditions and providing an explanation of the reasoning behind the move.
Attorneys for the Haitian TPS holders, and district court and appellate court judges, say there is convincing evidence that the secretary did not take the statutorily required steps before deciding to revoke the country’s designation. A Springfield nurse is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
The federal government says the economic hardships and the disruption that TPS holders claim will happen if they lose legal protections are the inherent risks involved with what is by design supposed to be a temporary program.
The government also has tried to end TPS for Venezuela, Nepal, Honduras, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Cameroon, Burma, Syria, Ethiopia, Somalia, Yemen and South Sudan.
Dorsainvil said every day he sees “the human consequences” of the uncertainty surrounding many Haitians’ status who “want to live peacefully and contribute to the United States.
Rollins, who has been working for several months on helping immigrants obtain passports for their children and obtain powers of attorney to avoid their U.S.-born children being placed in the foster care system, said the end of TPS could create a family separation crisis. She said St. Vincent de Paul has already encountered two minor children placed with extended families after their parents were deported.
“The reality is some of this has happened and should never happen again. This life or death issue deserves careful consideration by our Supreme Court to avoid tearing families apart and to keep children out of our overly already overworked foster care system,” Rollins said.
Haiti’s TPS designation started in 2010, following a devastating earthquake, when Barack Obama was president. The Trump administration tried to terminate Haiti’s designation during Trump’s first term, but that was challenged in court and the litigation lasted years and was not resolved by the time Trump lost reelection to Joe Biden in 2020.
DHS, under President Biden, redesignated Haiti in 2021, citing a presidential assassination, political crisis and violence and growing human rights abuses.
In a separate but related petition, Haitian TPS holders have asked the Supreme Court to consider arguments from their case if the court decides that it will review and consider legal arguments and issue a decision about the merits of a case challenging the end of TPS for Syria.
