Donald Trump Suffers Double Legal Deportation Setback Within Hours

The Trump administration suffered two deportation-related legal defeats in New York and Virginia on Tuesday.

A New York judge blocked a proposal to strip thousands of Haitian migrants of legal protections, and judges in Virginia rejected a bid to place Georgetown University academic Badar Khan Suri into immigration detention for a second time.

Why It Matters

President Donald Trump has made cracking down on immigration a policy priority for his second administration, deporting migrants living in the U.S. illegally and revoking the temporary protected status of migrants residing in the U.S. legally. The president recently said there were no illegal crossings into the U.S. via its southern border in May.

As Republicans control the White House, Senate and House of Representatives, the courts have become one of the main impediments to the Trump administration’s decisions.

What To Know

On Tuesday, a court blocked an attempt by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to remove temporary protected status, which allows eligible nationals to live and work in the U.S., from hundreds of thousands of Haitian migrants.

The Eastern District of New York’s Judge Brian Cogan ruled that Noem did “not have statutory or inherent authority” to remove the protections, which the Biden administration extended to February 2026.

Cogan said Noem would have to wait on the “statutorily prescribed procedures Congress has enacted,” preventing her from ending the protections before February.

The Obama administration first issued temporary protected status for Haitian migrants in 2010 and repeatedly extended the protections. The first Trump administration attempted to end the designation in 2017, but court delays meant nothing happened until Biden took office in 2021 and continued the status.

Haiti descended into anarchy following the assassination of its president in 2021, and large swaths of the country are controlled by feuding criminal gangs.

During a presidential election debate in September, Trump repeated the false claim that Haitian migrants were stealing and eating cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio, which local authorities denied.

In a 2-1 ruling on Tuesday, judges on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Virginia also rejected the Trump administration’s attempt to take Khan Suri into immigration custody for a second time, following his initial arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in March. Khan Suri was held at a Texas detention facility, but U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles ordered his release in May.

In their majority decision, Judges James Wynn and DeAndrea Gist Benjamin said taking Khan Suri into detention again would be a violation of habeas corpus, which prevents arrests without due legal process.

The Department of Homeland Security said that while at Georgetown, Khan Suri was involved in “spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media.” Khan Suri has strongly denied these claims.

What People Are Saying

Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, told Newsweek: “This ruling delays justice and seeks to kneecap the President’s constitutionally vested powers under Article II [of the Constitution]. Haiti’s TPS was granted following an earthquake that took place over 15 years ago, it was never intended to be a de facto asylum program, yet that’s how previous administrations have used it for decades. The Trump administration is restoring integrity to our immigration system to keep our homeland and its people safe, and we expect a higher court to vindicate us in this. We have the law, the facts, and common sense on our side.”

Judges James Wynn and DeAndrea Gist Benjamin wrote in their majority opinion in Badar Khan Suri’s case: “The government chose to move Suri without informing his wife or attorney of his location or custodian. If not for our conclusion that jurisdiction lies in the Eastern District of Virginia, that deliberate choice would have deprived the petitioner of any meaningful opportunity to contest his detention prior to removal to a distant jurisdiction.”

Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III wrote in dissent: “The district court found that he presents neither a danger to the community nor a risk of flight, which are both important considerations in rulings on pretrial release and bond pending appeal. Yet the government’s jurisdictional arguments with regard to the INA [Immigration and Nationality Act] are not without considerable force.”

What Happens Next

It remains to be seen whether the Trump administration will appeal either or both of Tuesday’s rulings. On June 27, the Supreme Court issued a 6-3 ruling curbing the power of lower courts to obstruct the Trump administration’s policy in response to a birthright citizenship case.