SCOTUS Rules Trump Admin Can Revoke TPS for Haitian Migrants

Immigrants sued the Trump administration after it revoked Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a humanitarian status for migrants fleeing violence or natural disasters in their home countries.

Their lawyers argued President Donald Trump’s racially charged comments about Haitians showed the decision was based on race and therefore violated the constitution.

But Justice Samuel Alito wrote in a 6-3 opinion that the lawyers failed to demonstrate the revocation of TPS was based on race. More importantly, he said that the administration’s decisions on who qualifies for TPS and for how long are not subject to judicial review.

Justice Elena Kagan authored the dissent, which was joined by Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor.

“True enough that TPS is a temporary program, and that it did not promise the plaintiffs never-ending humanitarian protection,” Kagan wrote. “But the law prevents the program from ending as it likely did here—without the required consultations about country conditions and, as to Haiti, with impermissible race-based considerations tainting the decision.”

In a statement, Department of Homeland Security Counsel James Percival said he was pleased that the court affirmed TPS “was always supposed to be temporary and can be cancelled at the appropriate time. Thanks to these decisions, we now have several more important tools to continue securing our borders.”

The decision could impact the status of immigrants with humanitarian status from more than a dozen countries, but it has immediate implications for Syrians and Haitians with TPS.