Federal judge blocks administration plan to end Haitian TPS protections

A federal judge in San Francisco blocked the Trump administration's effort to revoke deportation protections for Haitians under the Temporary Protected Status program, issuing a last-minute reprieve that will affect hundreds of thousands of people who had faced imminent loss of status. The order, filed Feb. 2, 2026, was signed by U.S. District Judge Edward Chen and immediately altered the enforcement landscape for TPS beneficiaries while appeals proceed.

Judge Chen framed the dispute as a question of whether the Department of Homeland Security properly considered the risks facing returnees. He wrote that revoking protections would send people "back to conditions that are so dangerous that even the State Department advises against travel to their home countries." Chen also concluded that the secretary's actions were arbitrary and capricious and exceeded the agency's authority in ending protections that had been extended under the prior administration.

The scope and size of the affected population remain in dispute. Chen's order has been described as preserving status for roughly 500,000 Haitians and, in a related finding, for some 600,000 Venezuelans whose protections had expired or were about to expire. A separate estimate placing the number of Haitians set to lose protections at about 350,000 has also circulated, underscoring disagreement among filings and public counts; those differences will likely be central to forthcoming briefing and appeals. Plaintiffs' court declarations documented disruptions tied to earlier enforcement actions and a Supreme Court decision that temporarily altered the preliminary injunctions in May, with the justices issuing a reversal without providing a rationale or resolving the merits.

The litigation stems from a decision by the Department of Homeland Security to terminate or narrow TPS designations for countries including Haiti and Venezuela. Chen singled out the agency head overseeing those actions, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, finding the revocations insufficiently justified in the administrative record. While the judge enjoined enforcement, the government is expected to seek appellate review; the Supreme Court has previously intervened in the case posture without addressing the underlying legal claims.

Plaintiffs and lawyers for TPS holders have described substantial harms from recent revocations and enforcement changes, saying that Venezuelans whose protections lapsed were fired from jobs, separated from children, detained and even deported. A court declaration submitted by plaintiffs detailed the turmoil experienced by households and communities amid shifting policy and litigation outcomes.

The ruling arrives amid a wider cluster of lawsuits over TPS expirations that have kept courts busy with requests to delay or block terminations for migrants from multiple countries. Lower-court litigation already has produced interim orders affecting Hondurans, Nicaraguans and Nepalese in separate matters, signaling that courts will remain key arbiters of the fate of temporary status programs.

With the injunction in place, the immediate question is whether the government will secure relief from an appellate court or the Supreme Court and how agencies will reconcile legal obligations with operational decisions at ports of entry, detention facilities and employers. For TPS beneficiaries, the order provides temporary protection from removal and continued work authorization, but the final legal outcomes that will determine long-term status remain unsettled.