A federal judge said she will not change her decision keep Temporary Protected Status in place for now for Haiti.
This protected status is the legal way that most of the estimated 12,000 to 15,000 Haitians came to the Springfield area.
The designation was set to end Feb. 3, but the night before, Federal District Judge Ana Reyes issued a hold to prevent this.
MORE: Many Haitians dealing with invalid driver licenses tied to original TPS end date
Geoff Pipoly is one of the attorneys representing Haitian plaintiffs suing the Trump Administration and the Department of Homeland Security. One of his clients lives in Springfield.
According to Pipoly, in her latest ruling, Reyes measured her final decision against a legal test called the balance of equities, weighing the potential harm to Haitian immigrants if TPS is terminated compared to potential harm to the federal government if TPS is not terminated.
"The Haitian TPS holders would lose their legal status overnight, they would lose the ability to work overnight. ICE raids would presumably start very, very soon thereafter in places like Springfield in Miami," Pipoly said. "And if these folks are deported they would be deported to one of the most dangerous countries on the planet, if not the most dangerous country on the planet."
Meanwhile, Reyes stated the harm to the U.S. government is that it can not deport people at the rate it desires.
Others at risk of losing TPS
Reyes has noted the United States is set to terminate the TPS designation for six other nations including El Salvador (Sept. 9), Lebanon (May 27), Somalia (March 17), Sudan (Oct. 19), Yemen (Mar. 3) and Ukraine (Oct. 19).
However, the TPS termination dates have been paused for Burma (Jan. 26), Ethiopia (Feb. 13), Haiti (Feb. 3), South Sudan (Jan. 5) and Syria (Nov. 21, 2025). This means people from these nations who are in the United States under TPS continue to have legal status.
At the same time, Reyes is presiding over a discovery hearing connected to the original Haitian lawsuit against President Donald Trump and the Department of Homeland Security.
Attorneys on both sides are presenting evidence supporting their positions.
Pipoly claims the government has not followed proper procedures to correctly terminate Temporary Protected Status for Haiti.
