Press Release  AG Campbell Urges Court To Preserve Block On Trump Administration’s Unlawful Termination Of Haiti’s Temporary Protected Status Designation

Boston — Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell today co-led a coalition of 18 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in Miot, et al. v. Trump, et al. in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, opposing the Trump Administration’s effort to overturn a lower court’s decision to postpone the termination of Haiti’s Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation while litigation on the termination continues.

“The District Court rightly halted the Trump Administration’s attempt to strip legal immigration status from hundreds of thousands of hardworking Haitian immigrants in the United States, and I urge the Court of Appeals to affirm that decision,” said AG Campbell. “Haitians are essential to the fabric of our communities, contributing every day as neighbors, workers, caregivers and leaders. I will continue to fight for them and any other immigrant group that this Administration chooses to unlawfully and cruelly target.”  

TPS is a humanitarian immigration status created by Congress to protect foreign nationals who cannot safely return to their home country because of war, natural disaster, or other extraordinary conditions. TPS allows recipients to live and work in the United States as long as their home country has a TPS designation. Haitian immigrants have been eligible for TPS since 2010, when a devastating earthquake hit the country. The protections have continuously been extended due to unsafe conditions in Haiti, including widespread violence, homelessness, and starvation. 

On November 28, 2025, the Trump Administration provided notice that it would end Haiti’s TPS status, as of February 3, 2026, without any evidence that the dangerous conditions in Haiti had improved and despite the fact that the U.S. State Department continues to classify Haiti as a “Level 4: Do Not Travel” country—its highest risk designation. On February 2, 2026, a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia stayed the Trump Administration’s decision to end Haiti’s TPS, which was set to expire the next day. This order preserved TPS for Haitians while the litigation over the lawfulness of the termination continues. On February 6, 2026, the federal government appealed this order and moved for a stay, asking the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to let them move forward with the termination despite the district court’s ruling.

In their brief, AG Campbell and the coalition urge the Court of Appeals to deny the federal government’s motion for a stay, arguing that terminating Haiti’s TPS status would separate families, damage economies, deplete workforces, increase health care costs, and harm public health and safety. Across states, thousands of TPS recipients provide important public services as health care providers, teachers, entrepreneurs, construction workers, and more. Stripping these individuals of their legal status would force them either to face life in uncertainty and vulnerability without legal protections or to return to a country experiencing exceedingly dangerous conditions.

TPS-eligible Haitians contribute $3.4 billion annually to the U.S. economy. Approximately 69% of Haitian immigrants aged 16 and older were members of the civilian labor force in 2022, with high rates of participation in health care support and service industries. Furthermore, a recent estimate found that 75,000 TPS-eligible Haitians work in labor-short industries. 

Massachusetts is home to one of the nation’s largest Haitian populations, including tens of thousands of Haitian TPS holders. Massachusetts’s Department of Developmental Services alone employs dozens of Haitian TPS holders, who provide care to some of Massachusetts’s most vulnerable populations. Stripping TPS recipients of their legal status and work authorization will cause irreparable harm to families, workforces, and state economies. 

In submitting their brief, AG Campbell and the coalition are asking the Court to deny the federal government’s motion for a stay and protect the hundreds of thousands of Haitians legally in the United States under the program while the litigation proceeds. 

Joining AG Campbell in submitting this brief, which she co-led with the attorneys general of California and New York, are the attorneys general of Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawai‘i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.  

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