Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem “complains of strains unlawful immigrants place on our immigration-enforcement system. Her answer? Turn 352,959 lawful immigrants into unlawful immigrants overnight,” Federal District Court Judge Ana C. Reyes wrote. “This approach is many things—in the public interest is not one of them.”

These scathing remarks were included in a ruling from Judge Reyes suspending the revocation of Temporary Protected Status for over 350,000 Haitians by the Trump administration.

The court decision on Feb. 2 allows T.P.S. to remain in place pending further judicial review. The ruling was handed down just before T.P.S. for thousands of Haitian residents across the country was set to expire on Feb. 3. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro filed a notice of appeal on Feb. 5.

Geoff Pipoly, lead counsel for the plaintiffs, said that he was pleased with the “incredibly thorough” 83-page opinion penned by Judge Reyes.

“Our clients get to breathe a little bit easier every night because they won’t have to go back to Haiti where many of them will face certain death,” Mr. Pipoly said. “And I’m not being hyperbolic when I say that. The evidence in the record confirms that Haiti is one of the most dangerous countries on the planet.”

“Many of our clients—if not all of our clients—are absolutely petrified of going back.”

Randy McGrorty, the director of Catholic Legal Services for the Archdiocese of Miami, has worked with the Haitian community in South Florida for many years. He said that the outcome of the district court decision was “very welcome news” not only for Haitian T.P.S. holders but for members of the South Florida business community who “rely on Haitian workers.”

Archbishop Thomas Wenski has been a vocal supporter of extending T.P.S. for Haitian immigrants. In an emailed statement to America, he approved of the federal court ruling and argued against an expedited appeal process that “could put us back in the same situation the Haitians faced earlier this week.” The archbishop urged Congress to “find a path to legal permanent residence” for Haitian T.P.S. holders “both for their good and well being but also for the communities in which they live and work,” citing the “economic pain” that would be caused by the loss of their “participation in the labor market.”

On Jan. 29, Bishop Brendan J. Cahill, the chair of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Migration, and Bishop A. Elias Zaidan, the chair of the Committee on International Justice and Peace, released a statement criticizing Ms. Noem’s T.P.S. decisions. The bishops urged an extension of T.P.S. and also called for Congress to pursue a permanent status solution to regularize the residency of long-term immigrants.

Mr. Pipoly spoke to America just after returning from an emotional church gathering in Springfield, Ohio, home to a large number of Haitian immigrants. “As is often the case when I’m around these folks for a decent amount of time, I was inspired,” he said.

“These folks have been through so much, and I would not wish the conditions in Haiti on my worst enemy.” 

Despite this court victory, he said Haitian families “are bracing to go back, and they’re doing it with courage.” According to Mr. Pipoly, Haitian families in Springfield have been stockpiling weeks of food and other supplies so they can remain indoors as long as possible in the event of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation in their community.

Many mixed-status families in Springfield, which include 1,300 children born in the United States, face a heartbreaking decision, he said. They “are ‘voluntarily’ making arrangements with foster families…so that if T.P.S. ends and they have to be deported back to Haiti, their children don’t have to go with them and potentially die.” 

These parents are “surrendering their own children” rather than accepting that they be deported to Haiti.

In appealing the termination of T.P.S., plaintiffs argued that the government relied on “pretextual reasons for a preordained outcome,” essentially that the government had already decided to terminate T.P.S. before assessing conditions in Haiti. The court found that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed in their claim that Ms. Noem failed to adequately consult with other government agencies to meet the statutory requirements for discontinuing T.P.S.

The ruling, Mr. Pipoly noted, is not a permanent solution for these Haitian families. The government can try again and “come up with a way to” revoke the designation that is “compatible with the law.”

While T.P.S. does not provide a path to citizenship, it enables immigrants to obtain work authorization and protects them from deportation. 

“It’s a tool to protect people when violence, civil war or natural disasters are occurring in their country, and they can’t reintegrate or go back,” J. Kevin Appleby, a senior fellow at the Center for Migration Studies in New York, said. “Haiti is in such a situation.”

“A lot of the Haitians are living a sort of temporary existence. It’s hard for them to plan for their families and not be fearful that they could hear a knock at the door and be removed at a moment’s notice,” Mr. Appleby said.

“It’s not only a legal issue; it’s a moral issue,” Mr. Appleby said. “Should we be sending back vulnerable people to a country that is not safe, that is one of the poorest in the world, where they are doomed to a life of insecurity?” Mr. Appleby noted that deporting large numbers of people to Haiti would only further destabilize the already failing state.

Mr. Pipoly said that there “were a lot of happy tears” when his clients got word of the ruling, but they “know what they’re up against. They know the hostility that has been unjustly directed toward them. They know how resolved our government is right now to deport them.”

The Trump administration has systematically attempted to revoke T.P.S. for every nation that has come up for renewal, although courts have blocked them at almost every turn. Most recently, on Jan. 29, a panel of judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that Ms. Noem exceeded her authority when she revoked T.P.S. for Venezuelan immigrant residents.

Haitians have qualified for T.P.S. since 2010, when then-Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano granted the designation in the wake of a devastating earthquake that caused a massive humanitarian crisis and claimed over 200,000 lives. 

Since then, Haiti has been ravaged by political, ecological, health, housing and economic crises. T.P.S. has been renewed for Haitians at 18-month intervals since its first designation because of these conditions. An effort to revoke T.P.S. for Haitians during the first Trump administration was stymied by court rulings, and the status was reconfirmed during the Biden administration.

Following the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021, gangs have taken over an estimated 90 percent of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. Authorities have been unable to stop escalating violence across the impoverished Caribbean nation, according to senior U.N. officials in July. Haiti has not had a president since the assassination.

In terminating T.P.S., Ms. Noem claimed that Haiti faces only “concerning” conditions. But conditions in Haiti have deteriorated so badly in recent months that flights to the nation’s capital from the United States are currently banned by the Federal Aviation Administration. The U.N. Security Council recently criticized Haitian authorities because of the lack of progress toward re-establishing a functioning government. The United Nations called for urgent security reforms to tackle increasing violence by gangs and criminal groups.

In her ruling, Judge Reyes noted a clear racial animus on the part of President Donald Trump and Ms. Noem directed at Haitian immigrants that seemed to be a motivating pretext for the decision to revoke T.P.S.

In her ruling, she noted Mr. Trump’s false assertion that members of the Haitian community were eating the pets of their neighbors in Springfield and a post on social media from Ms. Noem that derided immigrants to the United States as “killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies.”

“There is an old adage among lawyers,” Judge Reyes wrote, “if you have the facts on your side, pound the facts. If you have the law on your side, pound the law. If you have neither, pound the table.”

“Secretary Noem…does not have the facts on her side—or at least has ignored them. Does not have the law on her side—or at least has ignored it. Having neither and bringing the adage into the 21st century, she pounds X (f/k/a Twitter).”

“Kristi Noem has a First Amendment right to call immigrants killers, leeches, entitlement junkies, and any other inapt name she wants. Secretary Noem, however, is constrained…to apply faithfully the facts to the law in implementing the TPS program,” she wrote in the opinion’s blistering conclusion.

“She has yet to do that.”

Mr. Pipoly pointed out that there are very few Haitian T.P.S. holders with criminal records—less than a quarter of a percent, according to the government’s own data. He also said that Haitian community members have contributed significantly to the U.S. economy—a finding repeated in Judge Reyes’s opinion—while receiving no federal benefits.

“They’re not criminals. They work. They contribute,” he said. “They make the country a better place, and they don’t deserve what’s happening to them.”

Indeed, Haitian T.P.S. holders contribute $1.3 billion annually in taxes and contribute $3.4 billion annually to the U.S. economy, according to the opinion. Just under 95 percent of T.P.S. holders were employed in 2021, an exceptionally high rate compared to a 62 percent civilian labor participation rate last year.

With reporting from The Associated Press

Edward Desciak is an O'Hare Fellow at America Media.