US Supreme Court upholds Trump's power to end protections for 356,000 Haitian and Syrian migrants and restrict border asylum access

Two rulings on one day

The US Supreme Court delivered two 6-3 decisions that significantly expand President Donald Trump's control over immigration policy. The conservative majority, in opinions written by Justice Samuel Alito, ruled that the administration can unilaterally end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian and Syrian nationals and that asylum seekers must physically cross the border before they can request protection.

The law expressly prohibits judicial review of non-constitutional claims by those affected.

The White House called the decisions "important victories."

The TPS decision

Affected Haitians and Syrians had sued, arguing the move was racially discriminatory. The Supreme Court found no constitutional violation and held that statutory TPS determinations are off-limits to courts. The 1990s-era TPS programme offers temporary refuge to people from countries struck by armed conflict, natural disasters or epidemics. Haitians had been granted protection after the 2010 earthquake, Syrians in 2012 because of the civil war.

As a result, roughly 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians now face the prospect of deportation. The lower court must reconsider the matter in light of the ruling, but the executive branch now has wide leeway to revoke TPS designations without judicial second-guessing.

Border asylum limits

In the second case, the justices confirmed that an asylum application can only be processed once the applicant is on US soil. Standing on the Mexican side of the border, even in the immediate vicinity, does not satisfy statutory requirements. The rule was first introduced in 2016 under Barack Obama and had been used to cap the number of daily asylum interviews. Thirteen asylum seekers won a preliminary victory in a California federal court in 2021, but the Supreme Court overturned that ruling.

Illegal border crossings have already plunged during Trump's term. Authorities now encounter fewer than 10,000 irregular migrants per month, a multi-decade low, compared to 2.2 million in fiscal year 2023.

Broader impact on over a million people

At Trump's inauguration, an estimated 1.3 million individuals from 17 countries held temporary protected status. The administration has already moved to rescind TPS for nationals of eleven other countries, including Venezuela, South Sudan, Afghanistan, Honduras, Nicaragua and Ethiopia. If those designations are also terminated, more than one million people could lose their legal right to remain and work in the United States.

During his campaign, Trump had levelled a baseless accusation against Haitian migrants, claiming they were eating pets. That rhetoric added a racial charge to an already contentious legal battle. The court's reasoning, that only a successful constitutional claim could trigger review, shields the executive from most future TPS challenges.

They were eating the dogs, they ate the cats.