Supreme Court allows Trump to end temporary protections for Haitians, Syrians

Supreme Court allows Trump to end temporary protections for Haitians, Syrians

More than a million immigrants face possible deportation if they can't get other legal status in the U.S.

The Supreme Court has given President Donald Trump the go-ahead to end the legal status of more than a million foreigners permitted to live and work in the U.S. due to crises in their home countries. In a 6-3 decision Thursday, the justices said the administration could strip temporary protected status from thousands of citizens of war-torn Syria and violence-plagued Haiti.

Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the majority, said Congress has stripped the courts of power to enforce the legal requirements for TPS. The ruling appears to clear away any remaining legal obstacles to the administration's attempts to end TPS for immigrants from 13 countries, including Venezuela, Honduras, Afghanistan and Nepal.

Immigrant rights advocates said that although the law requires the Homeland Security Department to consult with the State Department on the conditions in impacted countries before making decisions on TPS, then-Secretary Kristi Noem engaged in comically cursory consultations with State. In one such instance, State responded with a one-sentence message saying the department had no foreign policy concerns about Haiti just 53 minutes after an email asking for its input.

White House border czar Tom Homan and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis welcomed the ruling. Homan said the ruling was the "right call" and a "great decision." "I've been doing this since 1984. TPS has never been temporary," Homan said. "So temporary means temporary. When the condition in that country gets better they need to go home."

DeSantis said "it'd be crazy to have ruled any other way. I know three of the liberal judges would have ruled the other way but that was a no-brainer in terms of immigration policy and immigration enforcement."

Trump and immigration hardliners in his administration have been critical of TPS, noting that some designations have been renewed for years or even decades. The TPS program for El Salvador, for instance, has been in place since a pair of earthquakes struck that nation in 2001.