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The U.S. Supreme Court has made a path for the Trump administration to end the controversial “Temporary Protected Status,” or TPS, for Haitian and Syrian nationals.
“In our second Supreme Court win of the day, the Court vindicates DHS yet again,” said James Percival, the General Counsel for the Department of Homeland Security, in a social media statement. “The T in TPS stands for TEMPORARY, yet many of these designations became de facto amnesty. This is a win for the rule of law and common sense.”
According to SCOTUSblog, the court halted previous federal court rulings that had blocked the Trump administration from ending TPS protections for migrants from Haiti and Syria. It also affirmed that the courts essentially have no power to review TPS designations from the DHS, per the outlet.
Amid ongoing litigation over this issue, the protected status for Syrian and Haitian nationals had remained intact.
“In these cases, we consider whether respondents, who challenge the termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for aliens from Syria and Haiti, are entitled to orders postponing the terminations during litigation,” stated Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the majority. “We hold that they are not.”
TPS is a designation created by Congress via the Immigration Act of 1990. According to the American Immigration Council, this status is applied to those individuals from “designated countries that are confronting an ongoing armed conflict, environmental disaster, or extraordinary and temporary conditions.”
There are at least 330,000 Haitian migrants and potentially as many as 6,000 Syrian migrants in the U.S. who enjoy TPS, according to some estimates. This “temporary” status for both groups has been extended for well over a decade.
While under the leadership of former DHS Secretary Kristin Noem, the agency announced its decision to terminate TPS for Syria and Haiti in the United States in 2025. The administration has since been hit with lawsuits aimed at blocking the termination of TPS for various countries.
Thursday’s rulings could have far-reaching consequences not just for Haitian and Syrian nationals, but for the broader 1.3 million TPS migrants in the United States, as well.
“I’ve been doing this since 1984 – TPS has never been temporary,” said Border Czar Tom Homan. “That’s why the whole statute exists…the problem is, no administration has had the guts to actually follow that statute. President Trump has the guts to follow the law…So, temporary means temporary, and I’m grateful for that decision.”
Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., celebrated the Supreme Court’s ruling, calling it “One of the biggest immigration wins in years.”
He said, “TPS was abused to keep millions of Haitians, Syrians, Somalians, and others here indefinitely under a status Congress called temporary. Today, the Supreme Court restored the President’s authority to end that abuse.”
