Temporary Protected Status

Temporary Protected Status (TPS) provides protection from deportation or removal and enables the beneficiary to apply for a work permit. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) designates countries for TPS if they are experiencing armed conflict, have suffered a natural disaster, or face other extraordinary yet temporary conditions that make them unable to safely repatriate their nationals living in the United States. DHS designated Haiti for TPS after the 2010 earthquake and subsequently extended it four times. As of November 2017 there were more than 50,000 Haitian people with TPS in the United States, out of a total population of 300,000 people from various countries with TPS.

Extraordinary Conditions: A Statutory Analysis of Haiti’s Qualification for Temporary Protected Status

The Global Justice Clinic published a report, Extraordinary Conditions: A Statutory Analysis of Haiti’s Qualification for Temporary Protected Status, that provided legal arguments in support of extending TPS for Haitian nationals for the maximum 18 month period.

The report showed Haiti still struggling to fully recover from the earthquake and still suffering from widespread homelessness, displacement, cholera, and hunger. This incomplete recovery is due in large part to the introduction of cholera into Haiti in October 2010, only 10 months after the earthquake, and to Hurricane Matthew, the strongest storm to hit Haiti in 52 years, which struck in October 2016.
Student Advocacy

Student Advocates from the Global Justice Clinic hosted two phone banks in November 2017 to invite students to reach out to key legislators urging them to support TPS extension for Haiti. At least twenty students made phone calls, and at least thirty students signed a letter addressed to New York Mayor Bill de Blasio urging him to call for TPS extension. Students were provided with scripts and with contact information for target legislators. The phone bank also served to generate awareness about TPS among law students.

Litigation

On November 20, 2017, the Trump Administration terminated TPS for Haiti, stating that the conditions caused by the earthquake no longer exist. With TPS set to terminate in July 2019, the Clinic, together with the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers’ Guild, filed a Freedom of Information lawsuit against DHS and United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement to obtain records documenting the reasons behind the government’s decision to terminate TPS for Haitians. The lawsuit was filed in January 2018 with the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, and NYU School of Law’s Immigrant Rights Clinic provided legal counsel.

Case Documents

National Immigration Project et al. v. DHS et al. (Haiti TPS FOIA)

US District Court, Southern District of New York
- Complaint (January 2018)

Advocacy Documents

Ending TPS for Haitians was Unlawful—and racist, too (August 2018)
Letter to to Elaine Duke, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security (November 2017)
Extraordinary Conditions: A Statutory Analysis of Haiti’s Qualification for TPS (October 2017)

For a more complete archive of documents and news relating to the Global Justice Clinic’s work to protect the rights of Haitians in the United States, visit the Center’s searchable Document Center and News Archive.