Federal judge reads death threats after Haiti TPS ruling

U.S. District Judge ARAna Reyes read death threats from the bench on Feb. 13, 2026 during a hearing on the Trump administration's motion to stay her ruling protecting Haitian TPS holders. She took the unusual step of addressing profane criticism and threats publicly, saying she consulted colleagues beforehand. She read directly from two emails. One said I hope you die today, enjoy choking on your tongue and I hope you lose your life by lunchtime, God damn you. Another said the best way you could help America is to eat a bullet.

The threats followed Reyes' Feb. 2 ruling blocking termination of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians while a lawsuit proceeds. Her decision came one day before the designation for 350,000 Haitians was scheduled to expire on Feb. 3. The U.S. initially granted TPS to Haitians following the catastrophic 2010 earthquake and extended it multiple times. TPS allows recipients to live and work in the U.S. but doesn't provide a pathway to citizenship. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is trying to end TPS for Afghanistan, Sudan, Venezuela, and other countries.

Reyes defended judicial independence and her colleagues, saying we will continue to do our jobs as best as we know how and we will not be intimidated. She said judges regularly receive such messages these days. She wanted people to see what happens when you're dealing with human lives in a democratic society. When DOJ attorney DSDhruman Sampat tried to move on from the discussion, Reyes cut him off to make her point about threats to rule of law.

The Justice Department argued Reyes should stay her order because the administration would likely prevail on its claim that she lacked authority to review the TPS decision. DOJ attorney Sampat said the administration had no plans to target Haitian TPS holders for removal if the judge paused her order. Reyes dismissed that claim. She said it was likely that law-abiding Haitian TPS holders who have been contributing to our economy would be picked up by immigration agents and held in detention centers indefinitely absent her order.

Reyes was nominated by President Joe Biden in 2022 and is the first Hispanic woman and openly LGBTQ person to ever serve on the U.S. District Court for the 🏛️District of Columbia. She came to the U.S. from Uruguay. She graduated with honors from Harvard Law School and spent more than 20 years handling high-profile federal litigation at a law firm. Some threats called her a foreign-born lesbian. Reyes said she's a federal judge not because of her identity but because of her qualifications and she never hid being an immigrant from federal officials.

The Trump Justice Department deleted a study from its website in September 2025 showing far-right extremists commit far more ideologically motivated homicides than left-wing or Islamist extremists. The National Institute of Justice study found militant, nationalistic, white supremacist violent extremism has increased and far-right attacks continue to outpace all other types of terrorism. Since 1990, far-right extremists committed 227 events that took more than 520 lives. Far-left extremists committed 42 attacks that took 78 lives. The study was removed between Sept. 11-12, 2025.

The DOJ study removal followed the Sept. 10, 2025 killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The Trump administration blamed the radical left for violence and threatened to classify some groups as domestic terrorists. The deletion occurred as President Trump claimed the radical left causes tremendous violence and seems to do it in a bigger way than the right. A notice on the DOJ website said the Office of Justice Programs is reviewing websites and materials in accordance with recent Executive Orders. The study is now only available via Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.