US Supreme Court Clears President Trump to End Protections for Haitian, Syrian Migrants/ Image@ BBC
The US Supreme Court has ruled that the Trump administration can end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for about 356,000 migrants from Haiti and Syria, paving the way for many to face deportation after years of living legally in the United States.
In a 6-3 decision, the court overturned lower court rulings that had prevented the administration from ending TPS for approximately 350,000 Haitians and 6,100 Syrians.
The programme grants temporary permission to live and work in the US to people whose home countries are considered unsafe because of armed conflict, natural disasters or other humanitarian emergencies.
The protections were first granted to Haitians following the devastating 2010 earthquake and to Syrians after civil war erupted in 2012.
Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito said federal law limits judicial review of government decisions concerning TPS.
He also stated that the migrants challenging the policy were unlikely to prove their claim that the administration acted with racial bias in violation of the Constitution’s Fifth Amendment.
The court’s three liberal justices dissented. Justice Elena Kagan argued that statements made by President Donald Trump suggested racial considerations influenced the decision to revoke protections for Haitian nationals.
The Department of Homeland Security welcomed the ruling.
Its General Counsel, James Percival, said TPS was always intended to be temporary and had, in many cases, evolved into a long-term immigration benefit.
He described the decision as a victory for the rule of law.
Human rights and immigrant advocacy organisations condemned the judgment.
Jill Habig, Chief Executive Officer of Public Rights Project, warned that ending TPS would separate families, disrupt local economies and return many people to countries still facing severe instability and humanitarian crises.
In a separate 6-3 ruling issued the same day, the Supreme Court also backed the Trump administration’s position that migrants stopped on the Mexican side of the border cannot apply for asylum until they have physically entered the United States.
Justice Alito said the wording of federal immigration law makes clear that a person has not “arrived” in the United States while still in Mexico.
The ruling revives a border policy first introduced during the Obama administration in 2016, later scrapped by President Joe Biden in 2021, which limited the number of asylum seekers processed each day at ports of entry.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in dissent, warned the decision would encourage more dangerous border crossings, predicting that additional lives would be lost as migrants attempt to enter the country outside official entry points.
By: Magdalene Agyeiwaa Sarpong