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By Hugh Cameron
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The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that Donald Trump’s administration may revoke Haitians' protected immigrant statuses, despite the opinions of humanitarian experts and dissenting justices that the country remains as dangerous—in many respects more dangerous—than when these were first granted in 2010.
In a 6-3 ruling handed down on Thursday, the Court sided with the administration in holding that the laws surrounding Temporary Protected Status (TPS) shield the government’s termination decisions from judicial review.
The decision in Mullin v. Doe overturns lower court orders that had blocked the administration from rapidly unwinding protections for around 350,000 Haitians and 6,100 Syrians—handing it a significant win in its ongoing push for greater de-documentation powers.
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"The T in TPS stands for TEMPORARY, yet many of these designations became de facto amnesty," Department of Homeland Security (DHS) General Counsel James Percival said in a statement shared with Newsweek. "This is a win for the rule of law and common sense."
Newsweek has contacted the Haitian Embassy in D.C. for comment.
What Does the Supreme Court Ruling Mean?
Established in 1990, TPS has since been granted to individuals who are unable to return to their home nations, due to natural disasters, conflict or other extraordinary circumstances. As of early last year, the U.S. provided TPS protections to around 1.3 million individuals from countries including Haiti, Venezuela and Ukraine.
Recipients are permitted to live and work in the U.S. for up to 18 months, and are protected from removal by authorities based solely on their immigration status.
Haitians were first granted this status after the 2010 earthquake—which killed over 100,000 by conservative estimates. In mid-2025, when the agency announced it would stripping the country of its TPS designation, DHS estimated that 348,187 Haitians enjoyed these temporary protections.
In favor of the decision, Justice Samuel Alito argued that the law governing TPS was written in a way that insulated the government from judicial scrutiny, and that Haitian plaintiffs were unlikely to succeed in proving that ending the program was racially motivated or violated their Fifth Amendment equal-protection rights.
The decision paves the way for the government to strip TPS at its discretion and has been welcomed by the Trump administration.
But others believe this puts the future of 350,000 Haitians in doubt.
"The Supreme Court's decision immediately throws the legal status of hundreds of thousands of Haitians living in the U.S. into jeopardy. Many of these families have been in this country for decades," said Jake Johnston, senior research associate at the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
"As politicians with large Haitian populations in their districts have repeatedly noted, many Haitians on TPS are nurses, healthcare workers, caregivers, etc.," he told Newsweek.
"So there will also likely be a huge negative impact on communities writ large if the administration actually moves forward with mass deportations."
How safe is Haiti right Now?
Notably, the Supreme Court’s opinion was agnostic on the question of safety—and the government’s argument in court did not rest on whether Haiti had become safer and therefore lost its right to a TPS designation.
However, the administration had previously maintained that conditions in Haiti had improved to the point that citizens could return home without issue.
"After reviewing country conditions and consulting with the appropriate U.S. government agencies, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem determined that Haiti no longer met the conditions for its designation for Temporary Protected Status," U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said in a notice published last year.
"The environmental situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home," a DHS spokesperson said in June.
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But this appears to clash with the on-the-ground circumstances in the country, as noted by Justice Elena Kagan. In her dissenting opinion, Kagan wrote that Haitian and Syrian TPS beneficiaries "ask for only one thing: that they may stay in this country while they continue to litigate their claims.…They are entitled to that relief, and should not instead be consigned to devastating, and indeed life-threatening, injury."
Since 2021, when President Jovenel Moïse’s assassination triggered a collapse in political authority and a surge in gang violence, Haiti has transformed, according to humanitarian groups as well as the U.S. government, into one of the most dangerous nations on earth.
Gangs like Viv Ansanm and Gran Grif—both designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations by the Trump administration—have taken control of key infrastructure thanks to the government vacuum. Human Rights Watch estimates that criminal groups control roughly 90 percent of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and have grown their influence to other regions while "severely disrupting the delivery of essential services and humanitarian assistance."
According to the U.N. in June, 2,300 people have been killed across Haiti so far this year, with hundreds kidnapped and 1.5 million—around 12 percent of the population—displaced.
The intergovernmental organization has in recent years deployed peacekeeping forces to the country with limited success in restoring order. Following the U.N. Security Council passing a resolution in October—cowritten by the U.S. and Panama—this outfit was transitioned into a larger "Gang Suppression Force," which first entered Haiti in April.
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Widespread violence—including killings, kidnappings and sexual abuse—remains rife and has targeted civilians, journalists and aid routes. Gang control over roads, ports and supply chains has also pushed over half the population into critical levels of food insecurity, according to Human Rights Watch.
"It is immediately disastrous, and will get worse," Brian Concannon, cofounder and executive director of the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, said of the decision.
Concannon told Newsweek that, based on the average risk endured by those in the country, the damage from a mass deportation program "would be catastrophic."
"Haiti’s approximately 9,000 homicides in 2025 would equal 263 deaths annually among the returned TPS holders; the 1.5 million Haitians currently displaced by violence would equal 44,000 TPS holders; and the 5.7 million facing acute food insecurity would equal 166,250 among TPS holders."
Is Haiti Safer Than in 2010?
By most accounts, Haiti is not safer than when its TPS designation was first granted.
The country underwent an uneven and fragile recovery following the 2010 earthquake, but maintained a functioning government throughout the decade and international support for its institutions, while gang violence remained localized and did not yet threatened to dismantle the central political authority.
Haiti also eventually overcame the devastating 2010s cholera outbreak which followed the earthquake, though the disease eventually resurfaced in late 2022, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), and hundreds of cases continue to be reported in 2026.
"The situation in Haiti remains highly precarious, with more people displaced today than in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake," said Johnston. He added that the deportation of hundreds of thousands of people to the country "is more likely to generate precisely the kind of instability that the U.S. is ostensibly trying to prevent in Haiti."
And William O’Neill, the U.N. High Commissioner’s Designated Expert on Haiti, last year described the widespread human rights violations as on "a scale and intensity that I have never seen before in Haiti."
"The fear is palpable in people’s eyes and in their voices," he said. "The capital is almost entirely controlled and surrounded by gangs, making Port-au-Prince a large open-air prison."
Most countries have updated their travel guidelines to reflect these circumstances, with the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) advising "against all travel to Haiti due to the volatile security situation."
And, according to Democratic Representative Laura Gillen, the Supreme Court’s decision "flies in the face of the administration’s own designation of Haiti as a maximum travel risk."
The State Department has assigned Haiti a Level 4 Travel Advisory—the highest warning possible—due to the risk of terrorist violence and kidnappings, the limited capacities of Haitian law enforcement, and "the escalation of clashes between armed groups [which] has led to a rise in sporadic gunfire."
The U.S. previously ordered all non-emergency government employees to leave Haiti over these risks, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FDA) has prohibited flights to the capital "due to ongoing instability."
Taken together, these circumstances appear to align with the conditions required for TPS designation outlined by U.S. immigration authorities, namely "conditions in the country that temporarily prevent the country's nationals from returning safely, or in certain circumstances, where the country is unable to handle the return of its nationals adequately."
And the Supreme Court’s ruling has been criticized on these grounds.
"This decision by the Supreme Court will only exacerbate a humanitarian and human rights catastrophe in Haiti," O'Neill said on Thursday, as quoted by the Miami Herald. "No country in the world should be deporting anyone to Haiti where safe, dignified and durable returns are simply not possible."
What Happens Next
While the Supreme Court decision appears to have strengthened the government’s discretion over TPS designation, some lawmakers are still trying to delay its efforts to strip Haitians of their status.
A bipartisan bill aimed at extending Haitians’ protections—sponsored by Democratic Representative Gillen and New York Republican Mike Lawler—passed the House 224-204 in April, and its authors are now urging the Senate to take it up in light of the ruling.
While he has "never disputed the ability of the president" to revoke TPS, Lawler wrote on X that the situation in Haiti was "a humanitarian and political disaster," and that this warranted "an extension" of TPS for Haitians.
"Second, of the 350,000+ lawful Haitian TPS holders, roughly 1/3rd work in our healthcare system," he added. "Immediately shutting off TPS will create a crisis in our hospitals, nursing homes, and in the I/DD community."
However, Republican Senator Katie Britt, chair of the Senate Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee, has expressed doubt that Lawler’s bill will garner much support in the upper chamber.
"This is dead on arrival in the Senate," she posted to X in April.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Trevor Davies.
Update 6/26/26 10:58 a.m. ET: this article was updated with a response from DHS, expert commentary and additional information.
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