Decades after landmark immigration case, Haitian protections return to Supreme Court
The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday to determine the fate of more than 300,000 Haitians living in the United States under immigration protections as their volatile Caribbean nation endures one of its most unstable periods.
The case, brought by the Trump administration after two lower courts blocked its efforts to end Haiti’s Temporary Protected Status, is not the first involving Haitian immigrants to reach the high court. In 1991, Miami immigration attorney Ira Kurzban, representing the Haitian Refugee Center in Little Haiti, argued and won the landmark case McNary v. Haitian Refugee Center. The case was about whether immigrants could challenge how the government handled their legalization applications — and whether federal courts could review immigration programs.
The case has been repeatedly cited in issues about judicial review, which was raised in the lawsuit triggering the Trump administration’s request to the Supreme Court to have the right to strip Haitians and Syrians of their legal protections against deportations to their troubled nations.
The Department of Homeland Security has argued that the decision is not subject to review by a judge, while immigration lawyers have argued the opposite. In the case of Miot v. Trump, a district court judge, Ana C. Reyes, agreed with Haitian immigrants and blocked the end of TPS. An appeals court later agreed with her, triggering the administration’s request to the Supreme Court.
The 1991 decision in McNary v. Haitian Refugee Center affected nearly 250,000 pending legalization cases, and its outcome — that immigration policies aren’t immune from judicial review when there’s evidence of systemic unfairness _ remains a foundation for current legal challenges to the Trump administration’s efforts to end TPS for more than a dozen countries.
Kurzban has litigated more than 75 federal cases involving migrants’ rights and is the author of what’s considered the Bible on immigration law. Earlier this year, as a group gathered at a North Miami restaurant to honor his commitment to both Haitian immigrants and Haiti — he was the attorney for twice-exiled Haiti President Jean-Bertrand Aristide — Kurzban reflected on the decades-long legalization fight on behalf of Haitians.
On Wednesday, he was at the Supreme Court arguments. His firm, Kurzban, Kurzban, Tetzeli & Pratt, is among those challenging the Trump administration over its effort to end Haiti’s TPS designation. The challenge comes as Haiti faces widespread violence by armed gangs, severe hunger affects more than half the population and nearly 1.5 million people have been forced to flee their homes.
The current legal fight echoes a longer history of advocacy in Miami dating to the 1970s and continuing through Haiti’s first democratic elections.
“Lawsuits we brought not only changed the course of history for the community, but for refugees from all countries in the world that were in the United States,” Kurzban said. “It was the Haitian Refugee Center in this community that brought the first lawsuits challenging deportation hearings that denied due process.”
He noted that the Haitian Refugee Center also won the right for refugees to be released from detention while pursuing asylum claims. It also helped secure a ruling, in the case of National Council of Churches v. Egan, that established the right to work while seeking asylum, leading to nationwide regulations permitting employment authorization for asylum applicants.
The Haitian Refugee Center, which was based in Miami, also brought the first internationally recognized lawsuit challenges to detention at Guantánamo Bay and to the interdiction of migrants on the high seas.
Kurzban credits advocates — including Steve Forester, Brian Concannon, Rick Schwartz and Fritz Longchamp, the current Haiti ambassador to the Dominican Republic who was a named plaintiff in one of the early lawsuits — for working with Congress to help secure legislation such as the Cuban Adjustment Act, the Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act and the Haitian Family Reunification Parole Program, which provided legal status to hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S.
He also credited the activism of the Miami community, including Haitian community leaders like the late Rev. Gérard Jean-Juste, who organized alongside African American leaders and others while legal challenges unfolded in the courts.
“None of these actions would have ever been possible without Haitians in this community, demonstrating, marching and telling the South Florida community and the world about their situation,” Kurzban said. “No victory is won without sacrifice.”
Kurzban said legal efforts must be paired with public advocacy.
“ For those who believe we can win TPS by sitting back and letting lawyers win cases, I am reminded of Jean-Juste’s insistence that we have demonstrate in the streets of Miami to support all legal actions,” he said.
“We need to speak truth to power, but not only on our cell phones but with our feet in the streets of Miami, peacefully but insistently demonstrating to tell the world that the 350,000 Haitians with TPS are here and they deserve to be here under U.S. law,” he added. “No racist intent by this administration, no intentional, willful lies about the conditions in Haiti or Haitians in the U.S., no unlawful actions or efforts to instill fear in the community can stop our marches, demonstrations and demands for justice.”
Quoting Haiti’s founding father, Toussaint Louverture, Kurzban added: “He wanted liberty and equality to reign in Saint-Domingue. And if he were alive today, I’m sure he would say it should reign, not only in Haiti, but in the U.S. and throughout the world.”
