If ever a Supreme Court case shaped up as Goliath v. David, it would be Trump v. Miot, which comes up for oral argument on April 29. You know who Donald Trump is. Fritz Emmanuel Lesly Miot is one of about 350,000 Haitians currently permitted to live and work in the U.S. under a program called Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, due to conditions in Haiti, which remains wracked by gang violence and poverty.
Trump is trying to end TPS for them, rendering them eligible for deportation, and Miot is suing to prevent that. As is often the case regarding immigrants, President Trump’s animus toward the Haitians is evident; remember the 2024 presidential debate when he said they were “eating the cats and dogs” in Springfield, Ohio?
Even some Republicans find his position extreme; 11 backed a Democrat-sponsored bill to extend TPS for Haiti through the end of Trump’s term that passed the House, 224-204, on April 16.
As is also often the case regarding immigration, however, Trump has identified a genuine problem, which in this case is the mutation of TPS, originally designed as a short-term safe haven program, into a de facto vehicle for large-scale, long-term immigration—not only by Haitians but also numerous others.
What’s more, the law is on Trump’s side, as the Supreme Court is likely to find—and probably should. Disruptive though it may be, the Supreme Court’s ruling in Trump v. Miot could catalyze reform.
