Supreme Court allows Trump to terminate deportation protections for Haitians, Syrians  

The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the Trump administration can cut off temporary legal protections for thousands of Haitians and Syrians, deciding that federal judges have no authority to weigh in on many of the challengers’ claims.

It hands the president a major victory on his immigration crackdown. The Trump administration has sought to terminate more than a dozen countries from Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a program that allows citizens of designated countries to be protected from deportation and receive a pathway to work authorization.

It’s an ominous sign for TPS recipients of the many other countries who have also sued to protect their status — cases where lower court judges have often kept TPS in place as they determined the Trump administration’s swift decisions were motivated by racial animus.

“The TPS statute plainly bars consideration of respondents’ non-constitutional claims,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the majority.

As for their remaining claims, Alito said they are unlikely to succeed, including on claims the efforts to end TPS are racially motivated. Alito wrote the plaintiffs were seeking “to capitalize on … heated language” from President Trump and former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

“Whatever one may think of the cited statements, they are insufficient to show that the termination of Haiti’s TPS designation was based on the race of the Haitian people,” he wrote.

The three liberal justices dissented.

“In fact the statute allows judicial review of whether the Secretary adhered to the procedures it mandates—which is what the plaintiffs dispute here,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote, noting the established process for rescinding a TPS declaration.

“Second, the majority claims to see no evidence that race played any role in the Haiti decision. But the evidence is there, plain to see, in the President’s statements, which the majority (and for that matter, his own lawyers) cannot even bear to repeat.” 

Created in 1990, TPS temporarily........

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