Appeals court keeps Haiti TPS in place for now, setting up Supreme Court showdown

The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., denied the Trump administration’s request last week to set aside a district court’s ruling that indefinitely suspended the termination of Haitian immigrants’ Temporary Protected Status.

This means that approximately 350,000 immigrants from the Carribean country would be able to stay in the United States until the U.S. Supreme Court makes the final decision.

In a 2-1 decision, the Court of Appeals denied the federal government’s emergency motion for a stay pending appeal of the lower court’s decision allowing TPS to continue, according to the Springfield News-Sun.

“The government’s failure to meet its burden of demonstrating irreparable harm alone justifies denying emergency relief that would upend the status quo and increase uncertainty while this appeal proceeds,” the court said, per the Associated Press.

The Court of Appeals added that Haitian immigrants from Haiti would face “devastating” consequences if their TPS is cancelled, among which would be risks of detention, deportation, family separation, and the loss of the right to work, the Springfield News-Sun reported.

“These ‘generalized assertions of injury’ are insufficient to support a stay pending appeal,” the court wrote. “The government must demonstrate an injury that is ‘both certain and great,’ and ‘of such imminence that there is a clear and present need for equitable relief to prevent irreparable harm.’”

Meanwhile, Haitian immigrants are struggling to renew their temporary driving permits due to issues with TPS, according to Champion City Drivers Ed’s CEO, John Whitacre.

“They’re just sort of in limbo waiting to see when they’re able to actually renew that temporary permit to continue with their driver’s education,” he told 10WBNS.

The Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles told the news source that if a person qualifies for the TPS program and has a license or ID, the expiration date on those documents must match the current TPS program expiration date, which means many licenses and IDs expired in February.

BMV said that it is possible to renew the permit as long as the department verifies a person’s TPS status with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services – a process that could take four to six weeks for some people.

“They don’t know what to do,” Marc Fequiere, the founder of the Haitian Community Network, or HaCoNet, told 10WBNS. “How do I get to work if I can’t drive? How do I get my babies to daycare if I can’t drive? So people now are relying on others.”

10WBNS also contacted Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, who said that “it’s impossible to issue licenses for people who are on TPS unless there’s a date certain,” adding that it makes it harder for Haitians to obtain a license or permit because their date is not certain.

“We do not have the ability to take people to work. It is certainly a problem. In Springfield, we work with agencies, we work very closely with them, [and] some of them are trying to help. But even for a local nonprofit, it’s a huge challenge,” DeWine said, per the station.