Three organizations filed a lawsuit Monday seeking to block the Trump administration’s attempt to put an early end to Temporary Protected Status for people from Haiti and Venezuela living in the U.S.
Last month, President Donald Trump’s administration rescinded the TPS extension until February 2026 that was granted under President Joe Biden, requiring Haitians to return to their country by Aug. 3 and Venezuelans by April 2.
Lawyers for Civil Rights, which is representing the groups and four people who are in the country under TPS, said the suit was the first filed on behalf of Haitians in the U.S. under TPS. Two lawsuits were quickly filed to challenge the administration’s decision on behalf of Venezuelans last month.
“TPS is a critical lifeline for immigrants who have fled extreme violence, political upheaval, and natural disasters in their home countries,” LCR senior attorney Mirian Albert said in a statement.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment about the lawsuit.
The Boston area is home to almost 50,000 Haitian people, according to The Immigrant Learning Center, making it one of the largest Haitian communities in the U.S.
Paul Simon, a Haitian American in Boston, said he voted for Trump three times but did not believe Trump had the power to deport those under TPS before its allotted time.
“I think he’s going to fail at this,” Simon, 52, said. “I’m a pro-Trump guy. But I disagree with that. If someone’s TPS is not going to expire till 2026, he shouldn’t be able to boot them out until 2026.”
He added, “He can’t pre-emptively end something that has been granted to them.”
Three immigrant advocacy organizations — Haitian-Americans United Inc., Venezuelan Association of Massachusetts and UndocuBlack Network — and four affected individuals are challenging Trump’s directive through the lawsuit.
“The decision to undermine TPS for Haiti and Venezuela is driven by racial bias and has no basis in the realities these communities face,” Albert said in the statement.
The complaint refers to an incident during Trump’s first term in which he was reported to have called Haiti and African nations “s—hole countries” during a meeting with senators. Trump denied making such remarks but did say his talk about those countries was “tough.”
Last year on the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly pushed the unfounded idea that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were “eating the pets of the people that live there.”
The lawsuit contends that the administration does not have the authority to “revoke an extension that has already been granted.”
Two plaintiffs, who are going by the pseudonyms Sydney and Marlene Doe, made Massachusetts their home in 2018. Sydney Doe is a real estate broker and business owner and Marlene Doe is a nurse, according to LCR.
Dieufort J. Fleurissaint, executive director of Haitian-Americans United Inc., said in a statement that “the community is anxious about the sudden loss of legal status, the possibility of facing deportation to unstable conditions in Haiti, and potential difficulties in finding alternative legal pathways in the U.S.”
