The United States Supreme Court agreed on Monday to review a decision by the Trump administration to end the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) that prevents the deportation of Haitian and Syrian immigrants.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) revoked the program, which affects 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians residing in the United States. However, lower courts blocked this decision, and the administration asked the Supreme Court to intervene, which the nation’s highest court has now agreed to do.
TPS, which protects beneficiaries from deportation and grants them the right to work, is temporarily granted to immigrants whose safety is threatened in their home countries due to conflict, natural disasters, or other “extraordinary” conditions.
The Trump administration has moved to dismantle most of these programs, raising the specter of deportation for hundreds of thousands of immigrants. This status has already been revoked for immigrants from countries including Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Honduras, Nicaragua, Somalia, and Venezuela.
The protections guaranteed by this status for Haitians and Syrians will remain in place until the conservative-majority Supreme Court issues a ruling. The Court will hear arguments from both sides in late April, with a judgment expected in late June or early July.
Haiti was designated as eligible for TPS after the devastating earthquake that struck the country in 2010. The status was extended several times, most recently in 2021 under the Biden administration. TPS was expanded to include Syrians in 2012 due to the civil war in their country.
In October, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to strip 350,000 Venezuelans of this status.
Source: Agence France-Presse
