A federal judge who once blocked the Trump administration from ending Temporary Protected Status for hundreds of thousands of Haitians has acknowledged her injunction is dead, a concession forced by the Supreme Court's landmark ruling in Mullin v. Doe.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes issued a written order Wednesday stating that her earlier court order staying the Department of Homeland Security's termination of Haiti's TPS designation "is no longer in effect." The acknowledgment came after the Supreme Court ruled in June that the TPS statute bars federal courts from reviewing the administration's non-constitutional decisions to end the program, and the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a subsequent mandate enforcing that decision. Fox News Digital reported that the ruling clears the last judicial obstacle the administration faced in terminating protections for an estimated 330,000 to 350,000 Haitian nationals living in the United States.
DHS General Counsel James Percival pushed back on reports suggesting that Wednesday's order itself ended Haiti's TPS. Percival posted on X that the protections had already expired weeks earlier, when the Supreme Court's mandate took effect.
"Haiti TPS ended when the Supreme Court mandate issued on July 27. I will give Judge Reyes kudos though for taking the L with grace and not doing something bonkers like many of her colleagues."
The comment was a pointed reference to other federal judges who have resisted or slow-walked compliance with higher court rulings unfavorable to progressive legal challenges against the administration's immigration agenda.
Haiti first received TPS after a devastating earthquake struck the country in 2010. The designation, designed by Congress as a short-term humanitarian shield for nationals of countries hit by natural disaster, armed conflict, or other extraordinary conditions, remained in place for sixteen years through multiple administrations, both Republican and Democratic. What was supposed to be a temporary measure became, in practice, a rolling grant of indefinite residency and work authorization for hundreds of thousands of people.
The Biden administration expanded and extended those protections, a decision that Trump and his running mate JD Vance blamed for fueling a surge of Haitian migrants into communities like Springfield, Ohio. That small city became a flashpoint during the 2024 presidential campaign after residents raised concerns about traffic safety, strained public services, and cultural friction tied to the rapid arrival of Haitian immigrants. Trump referenced residents' claims that migrants were taking ducks and geese from parks and eating household pets, claims that drew intense media scrutiny and fierce pushback from Democrats.
Former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem reviewed conditions in Haiti and determined the country no longer met the statutory requirements for TPS. She announced the administration's decision to terminate the designation, arguing the humanitarian program had been extended well beyond its intended temporary purpose. That decision triggered the legal battle that wound its way to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court's ruling in Mullin v. Doe did more than resolve a single case. The justices held that the TPS statute itself strips federal courts of jurisdiction to review non-constitutional termination decisions, meaning the administration's authority to end a TPS designation cannot be second-guessed by district judges on policy grounds. The Court also found that the plaintiffs' equal protection challenge, which alleged racial animus behind the termination, was unlikely to succeed. It reversed the lower courts and remanded the case for further proceedings.
That ruling represented a structural defeat for the legal strategy immigration advocates had used for years to keep TPS designations alive through court injunctions. Judge Reyes, a Biden appointee who had earlier issued an 83-page ruling finding it "substantially likely" that Noem's decision was driven by "hostility to nonwhite immigrants", had no room left to maneuver once the Supreme Court and the D.C. Circuit issued their mandates.
The administration moved quickly after the mandate landed. DHS announced that Haiti's TPS designation was terminated effective July 27. Employment authorization documents issued under the Haiti TPS program were declared no longer valid. The department instructed employers across the country to reverify the work authorization of affected employees, a step that will force hundreds of thousands of Haitian nationals to either secure a different lawful immigration status or face removal.
USCIS published a formal update on the termination on July 29, spelling out the practical consequences for TPS holders and their employers.
Haiti is not the only country affected. The Trump administration has also moved to terminate TPS protections for roughly 600,000 Venezuelans, 160,000 Ukrainians, and tens of thousands of nationals from Honduras, Nicaragua, Nepal, Afghanistan, and Cameroon, the New York Post reported. The Supreme Court's ruling in Mullin v. Doe effectively removed the primary legal tool that advocacy groups and sympathetic judges had used to block those terminations, setting a precedent that will make future TPS challenges far harder to sustain.
Some progressive officials have vowed to resist. New York City's mayor pledged to shield Haitian and Syrian immigrants from enforcement actions, a posture that puts city policy on a direct collision course with federal law and the Supreme Court's holding.
On Capitol Hill, the response has been mixed. Some lawmakers have pushed legislative alternatives. Rep. Mike Lawler, a New York Republican, introduced a measure that critics say would create an open-ended deportation shield for the same population the courts just cleared the administration to address. The Senate, meanwhile, blocked an extension of Haitian TPS before the July 27 expiration, declining to override the administration's decision through legislation.
Opponents of the termination have pointed to the State Department's own Level 4 "Do Not Travel" advisory for Haiti, which cites widespread gang violence, kidnappings, and civil unrest. Attorneys for Haitian TPS holders argued in court filings that "if the termination stands, people will almost certainly die." DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin dismissed the original injunction as "lawless activism."
The humanitarian situation in Haiti is grim by any measure. But the Supreme Court's ruling drew a sharp line: the question of whether a country's conditions warrant TPS is a decision Congress assigned to the executive branch, not to federal judges. Courts may still hear claims of unconstitutional racial discrimination in the termination process, and the underlying lawsuit on those equal protection grounds continues. Whether that remaining legal theory can gain traction after the Supreme Court already found it unlikely to succeed is an open question.
The White House did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment before publication. Former acting ICE Director Jonathan Fahey discussed on Fox News how the agency reportedly plans to address Haitian migrants whose TPS protections have now expired, though specific operational details were not disclosed.
For sixteen years, "temporary" meant permanent. The Supreme Court finally held the government to the plain meaning of the word, and the judge who tried to stop it has now put it in writing.