Trump Sued Over Ending Protections for Haitians, Venezuelans (2)

The Trump administration unlawfully ended temporary protected status for thousands of Haitian and Venezuelan nationals living in the United States, according to a new complaint filed Monday.

TPS is a humanitarian program that gives a “critical lifeline” to immigrants who fled their homes as a result of a natural disaster or violence and political upheaval, the complaint says.

A group of immigrant organizations say the US Department of Homeland Security’s vacaturs of TPS extensions are unlawful under the US Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act and should be immediately enjoined and set aside, according to their lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

The plaintiffs are three membership organizations—Haitian Americans United Inc., Venezuelan Association of Massachusetts, and UndocuBlack Network Inc., and four individual TPS recipients.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem within days of her confirmation vacated TPS extensions the government already granted to Haiti and Venezuela, their complaint says.

The vacaturs, which are “unprecedented,” advance the end-date for Venezula’s TPS designation from October 2026 to April 2025, and Haiti’s from February 2026 to August 2025, the complaint says. Noem then announced that the TPS for Venezuela would be terminated effective April 7, the complaint says.

But the TPS statute doesn’t authorize the Secretary “to pull the rug out from under vulnerable TPS recipients and rescind an extension that has already been granted,” the complaint says.

The Venezuela termination decision, for example, said the country has experienced notable improvements to the economy, public health, and crime that allow for these nationals to return. But “there have not been notable improvements” in these areas in Venezuela, the complaint says.

Plaintiffs and other TPS beneficiaries who have raised families in the US will be put at immediate risk of deportation if the challenged actions go into effect, the complaint says.

The plaintiffs also say “racial bias infected” these decisions, as the “list of dehumanizing and disparaging statements that Defendant Trump has made against Haitian and Venezuelan immigrants is unfortunately long: ranging from racist tropes that Haitians ‘all have AIDS’ and eat dogs and cats, to routinely describing Venezuelans and other Latino immigrants as sub-human ‘animals.’”

Noem also has tweeted racist tropes and stereotypes, including in February 2024 when she said countries like Venezuela “‘are emptying their prisons of dangerous criminals and sending them to America,’” the complaint says.

By contrast, Trump regularly praises immigrants from predominantly white countries, the complaint says. For example, the complaint cites an executive order requiring that white South Africans and their families be granted priority refugee status in the United States.

The Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Lawyers for Civil Rights represents the plaintiffs.

The case is Haitian-Americans United Inc. v. Trump, D. Mass., No. 1:25-cv-10498, complaint filed 3/3/25.