A federal district court judge stayed the termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian nationals Monday evening, bringing at least temporary relief to the Haitian community in Greater Boston, including Cambridge.
“I am overjoyed that the courts are providing the necessary safeguards against tyranny,” Michel DeGraff, professor of linguistics at MIT and director of the MIT-Haiti educational initiative, told Cambridge Day.
Similarly, Carolina Almonte, executive director of the Cambridge Commission on Immigrant Rights and Citizenship, expressed relief, saying that “ending TPS would have had devastating consequences on families and communities.”
The judge, Ana C. Reyes of the District Court of Columbia, handed down the stay late Monday in the case Lesly Miot v. Trump et al. Reyes denied the government’s motion to dismiss the case without prejudice, finding that the court has jurisdiction to hear it, and that plaintiffs have pleaded claims on which they are likely to succeed.
Reyes also noted that the government’s argument that the president cannot be sued under the Administrative Procedure Act was not relevant, because plaintiffs had already forfeited that right. In addition, it specified that the order staying termination applied to the Department of Homeland Security’s action and should not be construed as “an order constraining the president.”
Plaintiffs moved for relief under 5 U.S.C. §705, asking the court to postpone the effective date of an agency action and to preserve status and rights pending the conclusion of a judicial review.
The suit was brought by five Haitian TPS holders, led by neuroscience PhD candidate Fritz Emmanuel Lesly Miot. In an opinion attached with the decision, Reyes noted how the plaintiffs were not “killers, leeches or entitlement junkies,” referencing a Dec. 1 post about Haitian immigrants on the social network X by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Reyes said the government had offered no rational or evidence-based justification for attempting to accelerate the termination of TPS.
“Secretary Noem complains of strains unlawful immigrants place on our immigration-enforcement system. Her answer? Turn 352,959 lawful immigrants into unlawful immigrants overnight,” wrote Reyes in a blistering rebuke. “She complains of strains on our economy. Her answer? Turn employed lawful immigrants who contribute billions in taxes into legally unemployable.”
Despite the tone of the judge’s opinion, DeGraff said Haitians face a difficult road. “This is going to be a long battle, but we have to breathe and take it step by step until victory,” he said.
Almonte said the City was ready to help. “Here in Cambridge, we will continue to stand with our Haitian neighbors with compassion, advocacy and concrete support.”
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