article: On Jan. 25, 2018, the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild (NIPNLG) and a law professor brought this Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) suit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its component U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), as well as the U.S. Department of State (DOS). The plaintiffs sought to shed light on the government's decision to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian nationals, including its justification and legality. This case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and assigned to Judge Ronnie Abrams on Jan. 29, 2018. NIPNLG is a nonprofit organization that provides legal assistance to immigrants and advocacy on behalf of noncitizens. The other plaintiff is a professor at the New York University School of Law, where she works on human rights issues and in particular Haiti and Haitian immigrants in the United States. The plaintiffs sought records related to the government's determination to terminate TPS for Haitian nationals. The plaintiffs argued that "[t]imely disclosure of these records is critically important because of the looming termination of legal immigration status for tens of thousands of Haitian nationals living in the United States." The complaint explained that TPS status protected foreign nationals from deportation and allowed them to access work authorization. To get TPS, the individual's country of origin must be designated as warranting TPS and the individual must apply and be approved for the status. The plaintiffs argued that the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) required a factual inquiry to terminate TPS for a particular country after the designation had been granted; it could not be terminated without reason. According to the complaint, DHS most recently designated Haiti for TPS in 2015 and then extended the designation by six months in May 2017 in light of extensive hurricane damage. DHS terminated TPS for Haiti on Nov. 20, 2017—according to the plaintiffs, without justification—leaving 58,000 Haitian nationals in the U.S. at the risk of deportation and loss of work authorization. On Feb. 15, the plaintiffs filed an amended complaint, noting that DOS had issued a travel warning for Haiti. The plaintiffs also added as a defendant U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which they alleged had not substantively responded to a Nov. 2017 FOIA request. On March 16, 2018, the defendants wrote to the Court arguing that the plaintiffs did not qualify for expedited processing and that plaintiffs' proposed production schedule was not practicable. The defendants requested additional time to process. On Mar. 23, 2018, the plaintiffs opposed this request. By April 4, 2018 the parties had agreed on a proposed briefing schedule, which Judge Abrams approved, specifying that each agency was required to produce 1500 pages monthly of the requested documents. The defendants moved for summary judgment on April 27, 2018, and the plaintiffs moved for summary judgement on May 18, 2018. While the court considered the motions, similar cases involving the termination of Haiti's TPS were litigated, most notably Ramos v. Nielsen, et al., 3:18-cv-01554 (N.D. Cal.) and Saget v. Trump, et al., 1:18-cv-01599 (E.D.N.Y.). The documents submitted for discovery in these cases were re-released to the plaintiffs in this case. These releases occurred on March 27, 2019 and April 10, 2019. Following the release of this additional information, and due to parallel injunctive litigation, the plaintiffs agreed to voluntarily dismiss their case on April 23, 2019. This case is now closed.
summary: On Jan. 25, 2018, the NIPNLG and a professor sued DHS under FOIA, seeking materials on the government's Nov. 2017 decision to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian nationals. Due to parallel injunctive litigation and receiving the desired documents the plaintiffs agreed to voluntarily dismiss on April 23, 2019.