Supreme Court to hear TPS case for 1.3M

The Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday on whether the Trump administration can end Temporary Protected Status for immigrants from Haiti and Syria. (apnews.com) The two consolidated cases are Mullin v. Doe, involving Syria, and Trump v. Miot, involving Haiti. The administration is appealing lower-court rulings that blocked the terminations. (scotusblog.com) (cbsnews.com) Temporary Protected Status, created by Congress in 1990, lets people from countries hit by war, disaster or other extraordinary conditions stay and work in the United States for limited periods. Homeland Security can renew or end those designations. (scotusblog.com) The cases in front of the justices directly involve roughly 350,000 Haitians and about 6,000 Syrians now covered by the program. Reporting on the litigation says the court’s reasoning could also shape the status of about 1.3 million people from 17 countries. (cbsnews.com) (usnews.com) The Trump administration says TPS is temporary by design and argues courts should not second-guess the executive branch’s judgment to end it. Government lawyers also tied the move to national-security and public-safety concerns. (cbsnews.com) Lawyers for TPS holders say the administration acted without the required interagency review and ignored conditions on the ground, especially in Haiti. They also argue the Haiti decision was infected by racial animus. (abcnews.go.com) (usatoday.com) Syria first received TPS in 2012 during the civil war, and the designation was repeatedly renewed for more than a decade. Haiti’s TPS protections expanded after the 2010 earthquake and later upheaval, including gang violence and political collapse. (scotusblog.com) (apnews.com) Several justices appeared skeptical of the challengers’ position during Wednesday’s argument, according to early reports from the courtroom. A decision is expected by late June or early July, near the end of the term. (reuters.com) (scotusblog.com) That ruling will decide more than whether two country designations end. It will also test how much power presidents have to unwind humanitarian immigration protections once courts are asked to step in. (apnews.com) (cbsnews.com)