The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday granted President Donald Trump a majority ruling to cancel the Temporary Protected Services (TPS) program for hundreds of thousands of migrants, including 6,000 Syrians and 350,000 Haitians, in a ruling described as one of Trump's most prominent judicial victories on the immigration file.
The ruling was issued by a majority of 6 conservative justices to 3 liberals and drafted by conservative Justice Samuel Alito, who considered that the previous administration's decisions to cancel the program were based on "neutral political justifications" consistent with the temporary nature of the program, and the court rejected appeals filed by rights groups that accused the administration of racial bias, stressing that the law does not give courts the power to interfere in executive branch decisions related to ending or extending protections.
U.S. immigration law experts said the ruling would make TPS beneficiaries lose work permits and protection from detention and deportation, paving the way for the administration to begin large-scale deportations involving tens of thousands of families.
Closing the Appeals Door Permanently
In its decision, the court confirmed that theTPS explicitly prohibits lower federal courts from reviewing government decisions on ending protection, which in practice means closing the door to any future lawsuits that could block similar decisions, which has been criticized by American circles as establishing broad authority for the executive branch in managing the immigration file, and making the fate of hundreds of thousands directly tied to political decisions without the possibility of judicial review.
The three liberal justices, Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, who dismissed the decision, strongly objected to the ruling as discriminatory and contributing to "the displacement of thousands of families" and the return of people to countries designated by the State Department as high-risk.
Trump Administration Seeks End of Temporary Protected Status for Syrians
Earlier this month, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to intervene in its efforts to lift deportation protections for some 6,000 Syrians living in the United States.
In an urgent memo from the Supreme Court, the Justice Ministry called for a judge's decision in November to be overturned and to prevent the administration from ending the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Syrians, while the lawsuit challenging the decision continues.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who was appointed by Republican President Trump in September, announced that the "Syria Protection Program designation" would end, noting that the situation there "no longer meets the criteria for an ongoing armed conflict that poses a serious threat to the safety of returning Syrian citizens."
What does temporary protected status mean?
This is the third time that the Administration has turned to the Supreme Court in connection with its efforts to end this protection for migrants. The Court has sided with the Administration on the previous two occasions, which concerned the revocation of protection for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans.
Temporary protected status is a humanitarian designation guaranteed by U.S. law to immigrants from countries experiencing war, natural disasters or other disasters, and protects people with such status from deportation and allows them to work in the United States.
The Trump administration's Department of Homeland Security moved to end the protection status of migrants from 12 countries, including Syria, and similar lawsuits have ended up in court rulings that currently block the termination of protections for people from countries such as Ethiopia, South Sudan, Haiti, Syria and Myanmar.
Comments (0)