Haitian immigrants across the country received an eleventh-hour relief Friday as the government extended work authorizations for Haitians with temporary protected status.
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that work permits for Haitian immigrants with the recently terminated legal status — granted to citizens of countries experiencing political violence, environmental disaster and other unsafe circumstances — will now expire on July 24 as a result of a court order. The update came on July 10, the original expiration date set for TPS holders’ work authorizations.
“The extension is limited relief until the lower courts align with the U.S. Supreme Court’s favorable decision in Mullin v. Doe,” the notice read.
The extension was one of seven USCIS announced Friday for TPS holders from a handful of countries, including Syria, South Sudan, Burma and Ethiopia. It comes on the heels of the Supreme Court’s decision in Mullin v. Doe, which allowed the Homeland Security Secretary’s termination of TPS for Syrian and Haitian recipients to stand. The ruling also held that the governing statute bars federal courts from reviewing the DHS secretary’s designation of status outside of constitutional claims.
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The court’s decision eliminated the legal status for some 330,000 Haitian recipients. The island nation first received a TPS designation after a massive earthquake devastated it in 2010. Political upheaval gave way to gang violence following the 2021 assassination of Haiti’s president, resulting in more Haitians seeking the status in the early 2020s.
