EXECUTIVE POWER
The legal fight over TPS presented another test of Trump‘s executive power and the Supreme Court‘s traditional deference to presidents on matters of immigration, national security and foreign policy.
Actions revoking TPS and other humanitarian protections are part of Trump‘s broader rollback of legal and illegal immigration since returning to office in January 2025. The Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, last year let the administration end TPS for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans.
Trump had long sought to rescind TPS protections, and while running for reelection in 2024 vowed to revoke TPS for Haitian immigrants after making false and derogatory claims that they were eating household pets in Ohio.
The dispute carried potentially wide implications, affecting 1.3 million immigrants from all 17 countries currently designated for TPS. Trump‘s administration has said such protections were always meant to be temporary.
Advocacy groups supporting migrants voiced alarm at the ruling.
“This is a deeply painful day for hundreds of thousands of families who have built their lives here lawfully, paid taxes, cared for our communities, and who now face the prospect of losing everything,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of the group Global Refuge. “Importantly, the court did not find that Haiti or Syria is safe. It found that the question is beyond the reach of judicial review. Our immediate concern is what happens to these families and children should they be forced back to the dire circumstances that have long prevented their safe return.”
The Supreme Court previously granted Trump‘s requests to immediately implement several key immigration policies while legal challenges continued to play out in courts. For instance, it let Trump deport immigrants to countries where they have no ties and let federal agents target people for deportation based in part on their race or language.
Lower courts ruled against the TPS terminations, finding that administration officials failed to follow mandatory protocols to assess conditions in a country before revoking its designation.
The administration had said it followed proper procedures, and made the broader argument that courts cannot second-guess its TPS determinations.
