Caribbean TPS holders challenge Trump’s cancellation of humanitarian relief

On Monday, a federal judge in San Francisco, CA, heard a challenge from a group of Caribbean Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders against what they described as the Trump administration’s unlawful termination of TPS humanitarian relief.

Individual Venezuelan and Haitian TPS holders are asking the court to pause US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem’s decision to end protections by April 2 while the case moves through the courts.

The San Diego, California-based Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA) said some 350,000 Venezuelan TPS holders will lose work authorization and legal status by the first week of April.

HBA also said that, due to Trump’s actions, 250,000 Venezuelan TPS holders and 500,000 Haitian TPS holders risk losing their protected status this summer.

HBA said the hearing is the first in NTPSA v. Noem, a lawsuit filed in February challenging the administration’s decision to cancel protections that the prior secretary had already granted.

It said Noem’s actions are “unprecedented.”

The plaintiffs also argue that the actions are “without authority and motivated by racism.”

The suit seeks to protect over one million Haitian and Venezuelan TPS holders, HBA said.

It said the campaign to protect TPS is led by the National TPS Alliance, a member-led organization of tens of thousands of TPS holders and the lead plaintiff in the case.

The plaintiffs are represented by the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), the ACLU Foundations of Northern California and Southern California, the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at the UCLA School of Law, and the Haitian Bridge Alliance.

“Today, we stand united to defend the rights of over one million TPS holders who are at risk of losing their protections and facing uncertainty,” said Jose Palma, Coordinator of the National TPS Alliance. “The termination of TPS for Venezuelan and Haitian communities is not only unlawful but also deeply harmful to families who have sought refuge from unimaginable danger.

“We will continue to fight this unjust decision in court and ensure that TPS holders are not stripped of their rights, work, and security,” he added.

Erik Crew, HBA attorney, said: “We stand with these courageous plaintiffs who deserve to know that the humanitarian protection granted to them will not be stripped away in a matter of days.

“We will keep fighting to defend Venezuelan TPS holders, as well as Haitian TPS holders who have been targeted with the same lawlessness, and the TPS program as a whole,” Crew added.

Jessica Bansal, attorney at the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), said, “DHS’ attempt to strip humanitarian protections from hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants is unprecedented and illegal.

“We are seeking emergency relief from the Court to prevent the irreparable harm immigrant families will suffer if DHS’ unlawful decision is allowed to take effect next week,” she said.  

HBA has “unequivocally” condemned Trump’s decision to terminate the legal status of more than 500,000 Haitian, Cuban, Venezuelan, and Nicaraguan migrants admitted under the Biden administration’s humanitarian parole program, popularly known as the CHNV program.

On Friday, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that it will officially end the program on April 24, 2025, giving the migrants about a month before they face deportation.

“This is not policy—it is premeditated cruelty, rooted in white supremacy, anti-Blackness, and xenophobia,” Guerline Jozef, executive director of Haitian Bridge Alliance, told the Caribbean Life over the weekend.

She noted that the CHNV program, initiated in 2023, was designed “to offer temporary haven to migrants fleeing authoritarian regimes, economic collapse, and political violence—conditions often worsened by US interventionism and neoliberal policies.”

As of February 2025, Jozef had approved over 500,000 nationals from Haiti, Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua under this legal pathway.

“The revocation of their status is not only a direct assault on immigrant families but a clear signal that the Trump administration is doubling down on authoritarianism and ethnic cleansing,” she said, stating that, during his campaign, Trump referred to these migrants as “poisoning the blood of our country’—language that echoes 20th-century fascist regimes.

“Let’s be clear: this is a war on poor, Black and Brown people who dared to seek safety,” Jozef added. “These families have followed the rules. Now, they are being told they’re no longer welcome because Trump wants to rally his base with racist fear-mongering.

“We remind the public that the CHNV program has been life-saving,” she continued. “Nearly all of its beneficiaries were vetted, sponsored, and admitted legally.”

Jozef said terminating this program is “not just an immigration rollback—it’s an orchestrated effort to unleash ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency), tear apart families, and criminalize the very existence of people of color on US soil, consistent with the agency of Project 2025 (the Conservative policy agenda).”

Josef, therefore, called on Democrats and Republicans to “publicly denounce this move, defend the CHNV program, and take legislative action to protect those at risk.

“Silence is complicity,” she declared.

Trump’s order applies to about 532,000 nationals from Haiti, Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua who migrated to the US in October 2022.

Noem said on Friday that these immigrants will lose their legal status on April 24, or 30 days after the order is published in the Federal Register.

“To effectuate their prompt removal, the US government may, in its discretion, initiate expedited removal proceedings where appropriate,” the DHS warned.

Last week, Caribbean-American Democratic U.S. Rep. Yvette D. Clarke, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, joined U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, 62 of their colleagues in the US House of Representatives and 23 of their colleagues in the Senate in leading a letter to Noem demanding the Trump administration redesignate and extend Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haiti.

Clarke, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants and representative of the 9th Congressional District in Brooklyn, New York, told Caribbean Life that the Trump administration recently canceled TPS for Haiti “on questionable legal authority.”

In the letter, the lawmakers wrote that the July 1, 2024, Federal Register notice extending Haiti’s TPS cited “grave insecurity, gang violence, socio-economic collapse, and environmental disasters as an ongoing crisis warranting protection.”

“However, your February 2025 notice asserts that the 18-month period lacked justification,“ they said. “This decision ignores the overwhelming evidence that Haiti remains an unsafe place for anyone to return to.

 “The decision to rescind Haiti’s TPS designation is not a thoughtful policy in the best interest of the United States,“ said the legislators, stating that, during his 2024 presidential campaign, “Donald Trump explicitly singled out Haitian TPS recipients in rallies and interviews.

“This rhetoric mirrored his 2017 termination of Haiti’s TPS designation, which a federal court blocked for violating the Administrative Procedure Act and failing to consider country conditions,“ they said. “The administration’s current vacatur revives this legally dubious playbook, seeking to destabilize the lives of Haitian immigrants through shortened protections and heightened uncertainty.”

The legislators requested that Trump extend and redesignate Haiti for TPS for the statutory maximum of 18 months.

“Failure to extend and redesignate TPS would violate the INA’s requirement for data-driven decisions and abandon over 500,000 Haitians to a warzone the US government has explicitly deemed unsafe,“ they warned.

“Congress intended TPS to be both a humanitarian tool and a pragmatic response to unstable conditions abroad,“ they added. While DHS has discretion, that authority must be exercised with diligence, transparency, and fidelity to the law,” they wrote in the letter endorsed by more than 100 organizations.

On Monday, The Bronx Borough President in New York, Vanessa L. Gibson, the daughter of a Trinidadian father, joined in condemning Trump’s decision to revoke TPS for over half a million Caribbean and others.

She described the action as “a nefarious attempt to distract from policy failures and further undermine communities of color.

“Targeting our most vulnerable groups is shameful and un-American,“ Gibson told Caribbean Life. “This destabilizing move will make our communities less safe, not more.

“Our neighbors who hail from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela deserve far better than this, and The Bronx stands united with them and all other immigrant groups that have been targeted by this administration,“ she added.