Supreme Court weighs Trump administration push to end protections for migrants from Haiti and Syria

The Supreme Court on Wednesday wrestled with the Trump administration’s push to end legal protections for migrants fleeing war and natural disaster, hearing arguments that offer the latest test of how the justices will assess the legality of the president’s far-reaching crackdown.

Several conservative justices appeared to be leaning in favor of the Republican administration’s argument that the law limits what courts can do with a program known as temporary protected status, or TPS. The outcome could come down to how Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett vote.

The government is appealing lower court orders that blocked the Department of Homeland Security from immediately ending temporary protected status for people from Haiti and Syria. If the justices agree with President Donald Trump, authorities potentially could strip protections from up to 1.3 million people from 17 countries, exposing them to possible deportation.

The court has sided with the administration before and allowed the end of the program for people from Venezuela as lawsuits continue to play out.

The Department of Justice argues that the homeland security secretary has the power to end the program, and that the law bars judges from questioning those decisions. “The kind of determination that is at issue here is just the sort of determination that lies kind of at the heartland of what has been traditionally entrusted to the political branches,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer........

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