type: timeline_event
On March 11, 2026, the Trump administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court to clear the way for it to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for more than 350,000 Haitian immigrants, seeking emergency relief after an appeals court blocked the termination.
Haiti was first granted TPS in 2010 following a catastrophic earthquake that killed more than 300,000 people. After returning to office, then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem moved to end Haiti's TPS designation, effective February 3, 2026. In December 2025, five Haitian nationals challenged that termination. A federal district court had granted a block on the move, finding that Noem's decision to terminate TPS was likely motivated by racial animus.
The appeals court upheld that block on March 7, 2026, ruling Trump could not end protections for 350,000 Haitians. The administration responded by going directly to the Supreme Court four days later. The brief asked the Court to allow the TPS termination to proceed while litigation continued.
The Supreme Court had already allowed the Trump administration to roll back TPS protections for Venezuelan migrants, and a similar request involving Syrian immigrants was simultaneously awaiting action. SCOTUSblog noted the request as part of a broader pattern of the administration using emergency applications to the Supreme Court to circumvent lower court rulings that found its immigration actions unlawful or discriminatory.
The action represented the administration's escalating effort to use the judiciary's emergency procedures to override findings of racial animus and due process violations in its deportation program.