On July 1, 2025, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced in the Federal Register that Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian nationals will be terminated on September 2, 2025. Also on July 1, a New York federal judge ruled that DHS's prior attempt to shorten the TPS period for Haitian nationals violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). That ruling ordered DHS to keep Haiti's TPS designation valid until at least February 2026, as scheduled by the Biden administration. DHS has stated that it intends to appeal this decision.
Quick Hits
- The Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian nationals will expire on August 3, 2025, and the TPS designation will end on September 2, 2025.
- DHS published a notice in the Federal Register on July 1, 2025, stating that Haitian nationals who have Employment Authorization Documents with specified dates on the basis of Haiti's TPS designation are still authorized to work in the United States through September 2, 2025.
- Also on July 1, 2025, a New York federal judge found unlawful DHS's partial vacatur of the TPS designation for Haitian nationals.
DHS said in its Federal Register notice that Haiti's TPS designation will expire on August 3, 2025, and termination of TPS for Haitian nationals will be effective on September 2, 2025. The notice grants a transition period through September 2, 2025, for Haitian TPS beneficiaries. According to the notice, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem determined that permitting Haitian nationals to remain temporarily in the United States based on Haiti's TPS designation is contrary to the national interest of the United States.
DHS nonetheless recognized that Haitian TPS beneficiaries will remain employment-authorized through the sixty-day transition period that started on July 1. According to the notice, EADs that qualify for this automatic extension until September 2, 2025, must have the notation A-12 or C-19 under “Category” with a “Card Expires” date as follows:
- February 3, 2026
- August 3, 2025
- August 3, 2024
- June 30, 2024
- February 3, 2023
- December 31, 2022
- October 4, 2021
- January 4, 2021
- January 2, 2020
- July 22, 2019
- January 22, 2018
- July 22, 2017
The notice instructs employers to reverify an employee's work authorization by September 2, 2025.
On the same day that DHS published the notice terminating Haiti's TPS designation, U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan, of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, in Haitian Evangelical Clergy Association v. Trump ruled that Secretary Noem exceeded her authority when truncating Haiti's 2024 TPS extension from eighteen months to twelve months. Judge Cogan found that Secretary Noem's partial vacatur was unlawful under the APA and ordered DHS to keep Haiti's TPS designation in place for the entire eighteen-month period, unless it is lawfully terminated in compliance with statutory requirements. The government is planning to appeal Judge Cogan's decision.
Key Takeaways
The termination of Haiti's TPS designation follows a recent trend of similar DHS terminations of TPS for nationals of Afghanistan, Cameroon, Nepal, and Venezuela. Further, President Donald Trump included Haiti in his recent travel ban restricting the entry of foreign nationals from certain countries. Similar lawsuits challenging the partial vacatur of Haiti's TPS designation remain pending in federal court, including Haitian Americans United Inc. v. Trump, which is underway in Massachusetts.
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