MIAMI — Federal Judge Brian Cogan of the Eastern District of New York issued a ruling July 1 blocking the Trump administration’s order terminating the long-running Temporary Protected Status that kept Haitian immigrants from being deported. He held that the administration “does not have statutory or inherent authority” to end the protection. The program is currently set to run through Feb. 3, 2026.
Workers protected under TPS have the right to live and work in the U.S.
The lawsuit was brought by nine Haitian workers and a number of organizations, including the Haitian Evangelical Clergy Association and Service Employees International Union 32BJ.
President Donald Trump has threatened to cancel TPS and other protection programs for immigrants from other countries as well, including Venezuelans, Afghans, Cubans and Ukrainians. Over a million people from 17 countries are covered by TPS, almost half of them Haitians.
Bosses at Walmart stores in the Miami area had already begun firing workers with valid work permits the government had begun to revoke. At the Walmart in North Miami Beach bosses fired over 30 workers; the store in Hialeah on Northwest 79th Street has dismissed over 40.
“Going back to Haiti is not an option for most people living here in Miami,” Roberta Ribinson, a Walmart worker in North Miami Beach, told the Militant. “For these people ending TPS is a cruel blow. One lady who was fired came to me crying. Her family home in Haiti is no longer standing, her town is now run by the gangs, but ICE plans to drop her off at the airport in Haiti with no way to get in touch with her family.” Ribinson also has family members affected by the ruling.
Similar reports of firings of Haitians and other immigrant workers who had TPS protection have come from elsewhere in Florida and in Ohio. Employers involved include Amazon, Walmart, Sam’s Club and Walt Disney Co., which confirmed it had placed 45 workers on leave after the government announced its plans.
Stevenson Lemartius, a Haitian worker on TPS at the Columbus Easton Walmart in Ohio, told the Haitian Times July 1 that he’d just been told he was through. “I did everything right. I worked hard. Never caused any trouble,” he said.
Nadine Elisée, who worked as a stocker at a Sam’s Club in Columbus, said the bosses “told me I could no longer clock in. No severance, no support. Just ‘You can’t work here anymore.’”
‘We need a massive mobilization’
Haitian community organizations, pro-worker immigration advocates and others called a press conference June 30 in North Miami to protest the move to end Temporary Protected Status for Haitians. Miami Dade County has the largest Haitian population in the U.S.
In addition to the people directly affected, Miami-Dade County Commissioner Marlene Bastien told the press, “There are over 2 million U.S.-born Haitian children who could also be affected.”
Well-known civil rights and immigration attorney Ira Kurzban said the administration’s “immigration policy is based on a lie. The millions of ‘immigrant criminals’ don’t exist. The government is taking people who are here with legal status and making them illegal. The only way to stop mass deportations is mass demonstrations, peacefully in the streets of Miami,” he said.
As the press conference was taking place the local media was publishing news of additional outrages committed by the immigration cops. The Miami Herald reported that Isidro Perez, a 75-year-old Cuban man who arrived in the United States nearly six decades ago, had died June 26 after three weeks in immigration detention here.
Perez is the fifth person to die in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in Florida so far this year. Half of all these deaths nationwide since January have been in Florida. Perez arrived in the U.S. in 1966, ICE said.
Perez was arrested by government agents June 5, during an unspecified “law enforcement action” in Key Largo. The cause of his death is under investigation. He was being held at the infamous Krome Detention Center.
Perez had suffered some heart problems in lockup and was taken to Larkin Community Hospital, where he was diagnosed as having “unstable angina” and suffered a heart attack. After being released by the hospital the next day and returned to Krome, he reported chest pains again. He was taken to Florida Kendall Hospital where he died.
DHS: Haiti ‘improved’
A Homeland Security spokesperson justified the decision to end Temporary Protected Status for Haitians by claiming “the environmental situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home.” This is absurd. Haiti is one of the most dangerous places in the world.
In a cruel irony, the Homeland Security Department said it isn’t in U.S. interests to maintain TPS for Haitians because of the “serious threat” Haitian gangs pose, coupled with the Haitian government’s inability to provide reliable information about their citizens.
“Gang violence in Haiti persists as armed groups operate with impunity, enabled by a weak or effectively absent central government,” DHS said, where gangs are “striking the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area and its surroundings with terror and violence, including rape and other forms of sexual violence.”
The U.S. government first granted work permits and deportation protections under TPS for Haitians after the 2010 earthquake near Port-au-Prince killed over 300,000 people and left tens of thousands more homeless. The protections were expanded following the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in July 2021 and again amid expanding gang violence and deteriorating government control in February 2023 and July 2024.
New prison in a swamp
The government is building a new detention center in the middle of the Everglades swampland in anticipation of more immigration raids and arrests.
President Donald Trump paid a visit there July 1 and said he would approve the Florida government’s plan to deputize Florida National Guard Judge Advocate General Corps officers to act as immigration judges. Given its location, the new detention center has been dubbed Alligator Alcatraz.
“This attack by the federal government on immigrants is part of a broader attack on the entire working class,” Laura Anderson, Socialist Workers Party candidate for mayor of Miami, told the Militant. “They want to divide us and criminalize a section of the working class to weaken our ability to fight against their attack on our wages and working conditions.
“We need to champion the demand for amnesty for all immigrants in the U.S., to unify the working class and strengthen our unions.”
Rachele Fruit contributed to this article.