On Thursday, the 25th, the United States Supreme Court authorized the Trump administration to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians and Syrians, overturning lower court decisions and paving the way for hundreds of thousands of people to lose protection against deportation.
The 6-3 decision overturns lower court rulings and allows the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to quickly close TPS, a program that currently protects a total of 1.3 million people from 17 countries.
The result represents yet another victory for President Donald Trump at the Supreme Court, as part of his broad offensive against immigration. Although the court, with a conservative majority, stopped some of Trump’s immigration policies, the Court yesterday granted him a second victory, by unlocking the resumption of a policy that restricts immigrants seeking asylum.
The conservative majority concluded that the law does not allow courts to question the process adopted by immigration authorities to revoke protections.
In his opinion, Justice Samuel Alito also rejected the argument that Trump’s derogatory comments about Haitians indicated that the decision was tainted by prejudice. He said the statements are “insufficient to show that the termination of Haiti’s TPS designation was based on the race of the Haitian people.”
Justice Elena Kagan sharply disagreed, saying Trump’s comments were “so repugnant and racially charged that the majority refuses to commit them to paper.” In her dissenting vote, she highlighted that Trump said that Haitians in the US “probably have AIDS” and also amplified, in the 2024 campaign, false rumors that Haitian immigrants in Ohio were kidnapping and eating dogs and cats.
Federal officials deny that bias influenced the decision and argue that TPS was supposed to be temporary, but in some cases it has lasted more than a decade.
James Percival, DHS general counsel, celebrated the decision. According to him, the program had become “a de facto amnesty. It is a victory for the rule of law and common sense.”
In an interview with Fox NewsWhite House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller called the verdict “a victory 10 years in the making,” saying it allows Haitian migrants to “finally” be removed. Source: Associated Press.
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