Supreme Court Rules 6-3 to Let Trump End TPS for 350,000 Haitians and 6,100 Syrians

The US Supreme Court ruled 6-3 Thursday to let the Trump administration strip Temporary Protected Status from more than 350,000 Haitian immigrants and 6,100 Syrians clearing the way for potential deportations to two countries the US State Department itself warns against visiting due to widespread violence, terrorism and crime.

Conservative Justice Samuel Alito authored the ruling, delivering what could be the most consequential immigration decision of Trump’s second term. The court held that federal courts simply cannot review the administration’s TPS decisions — a finding that could shut down legal challenges for all 1.3 million TPS holders from 17 countries currently protected under the program.

The Race Question the Court Could Not Agree On

The sharpest divide in Thursday’s ruling was over whether race played a role in the Haiti decision. Justice Elena Kagan, writing in dissent joined by Sotomayor and Brown Jackson, said the evidence was plain pointing directly to Trump’s 2024 campaign claims that Haitian immigrants were eating cats and dogs in Ohio and that Haitian immigration was “like a death wish for our country.”

Alito disagreed, ruling none of the cited statements were “overtly racial” and that the administration had race-neutral justifications specifically that it simply opposes the TPS program as it has been implemented.

What Happens to the People Affected

TPS was first extended to Haitians after the 2010 earthquake and to Syrians when civil war engulfed the country in 2012. The program allows migrants from countries struck by disaster or conflict to live and work in the US while conditions remain unsafe at home.

Brooklyn-based Haitian artist Doudgy Charmant, who came to the US as a child in 2008 and lived under TPS before getting a green card, said the decision broke his heart. “Now a lot of families are in a crisis, they can’t take care of their kids.”

Lawyers for the plaintiffs said the responsibility to protect these lives now rests with Congress.