Haitian immigrants ask Supreme Court to toss case in light of new evidence

Members of the National TPS Alliance rally at the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on April 29. The Supreme Court is examining the revocation of Temporary Protected Status for Haitian and Syrian migrants. Alex Wroblewski/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Alex Wroblewski/AFP via Getty Images

Lawyers for Haitian immigrants filed a motion on Tuesday asking the Supreme Court to toss out the Trump administration's attempt to remove more than 330,000 Haitians from the U.S.

The administration has repeatedly tried to deport Haitians who are living in the U.S. legally under Temporary Protected Status, or TPS. TPS was enacted by Congress in 1990 to protect people who cannot return to their home countries because their safety would be imperiled by civil unrest or natural disasters.

In Haiti, an earthquake killed more than 200,000 people in 2010 and left the country with roving gangs, cholera epidemics and without a functioning government — conditions that persist today. The U.S. gave Haitians temporary protected status in 2010, and the designation has been extended since.

Now, a group of TPS recipients claim that the Trump administration failed to follow required legal processes before attempting to end those protections for Haitians. The Supreme Court, in an unusual move, agreed to hear the case before a lower federal appeals court had the opportunity to review it.

With a decision expected at the end of June, lawyers for the Haitians went back to the Supreme Court on Tuesday asking the justices to dismiss the case because they said new evidence has been unearthed that cast doubts on some of the assertions by the Department of Homeland Security.

The motion claims new DHS documents "contain further evidence that the termination of Haiti's TPS designation was a preordained outcome." The motion argues that "career staff" recommended against ending the designation, but they were overruled by a "political appointee," among other departures from standard practice.

The case hinges on the text of the law underpinning TPS, and whether courts can review the administration's decision to end Haitian TPS at all.

The administration at oral argument maintained that courts cannot review the determinations of the executive branch. But pressed by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, solicitor general John Sauer conceded that courts can review allegations of racial discrimination. The immigrants in this case have made one such challenge — that the Trump administration revoked Haitian TPS because of their race.

With new documents still coming to light, the immigrants' lawyers argue, the Supreme Court cannot answer that question.

"Until discovery is complete, the Court lacks a firm factual foundation on which to judge the merits of respondents' claims," their motion argues.

The court will almost certainly ask the administration to respond.