Supreme Court Allows Trump to Remove TPS Protections

The Supreme Court has handed down two cataclysmic decisions that will expand Trump's power over immigration policies. Both decisions were a 6-3 vote, split among idealogical lines.

Mullin v. Doe overturned lower court decisions that will pave the way for the Trump administration to end designations under the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program for Haiti and Syria. This could impact as many as 350,000 Haitians and 4,000 Syrians in the U.S.

Congress enacted the TPS program in 1990, giving the Department of Homeland Security the power to allow foreign citizens to live and work in the U.S. if they cannot return safely to their own country due to a natural disaster, war, or other “extraordinary and temporary” catastrophes.

The Supreme Court also overturned a 9th Circuit decision, curbing the number of migrants who have a right to be inspected and apply for asylum at the southern border. The Court found a difference between “arrives in” and “arrives at” the border, meaning that those who present themselves to officials while standing on Mexican soul cannot officially claim asylum.

Elected officials and advocacy groups have condemned the decisions, citing the hundreds of thousands of lives that will be endangered as a result of these rulings.