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Supreme Court to weigh deportation protections for Syria, Haiti

Lower courts prevented the administration from revoking the Temporary Protected Status designations

The Supreme Court building is seen at dawn.
The Supreme Court building is seen at dawn. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call file photo)

The Supreme Court agreed Monday to review the Trump administration’s effort to remove deportation protections for immigrants from Syria and Haiti, the latest in a series of emergency cases over President Donald Trump’s sprawling immigration enforcement effort.

Lower courts had prevented the administration from revoking the Temporary Protected Status designations from some immigrants who came to the U.S. from the two countries.

In the order Monday, the Supreme Court left those lower court rulings in place and agreed to hear arguments over the legality of the administration’s effort to revoke those protections on April 27.

According to court filings, the decision could impact more than 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians currently living legally in the United States. The justices will likely issue a decision in the case before the close of the court’s term at the end of June.

The TPS program, created in 1990, allows the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to designate countries where it is too dangerous for immigrants to return home, according to the DHS website. When Trump took office for the start of his second term, the Biden administration had provided protections for immigrants from more than a dozen countries.

Parallel to the attention-grabbing immigration crackdowns in Minneapolis and other cities, Trump has sought to revoke the legal protections for lawful immigrants from Syria, Haiti and other countries.

In the past, the justices have allowed the administration to remove TPS designations without explanation, such as in May of last year when the justices allowed DHS to remove deportation protections for more than 300,000 Venezuelans in the United States.

The Supreme Court is considering several other immigration enforcement cases this term, including the legality of the “metering” policy at the Mexican border meant to prevent asylum claims.

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