The final battle for TPS
The Trump administration is launching an all-out judicial offensive. His goal: for the Supreme Court to give him the green light to strip legal protections from hundreds of thousands of migrants. It is not just another appeal, it is an attempt to change the rules of the game.
The Justice Department wants a broad ruling that would allow it to act more quickly. They want to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for people from Haiti, Syria and other countries, according to a letter sent to the high court.
“The federal government has the authority to end temporary protected status as it sees fit, without court intervention,” the administration maintains.
But here’s the problem: the lower courts aren’t buying that argument. A judge in Washington D.C. He went further and pointed out something uncomfortable.
It determined that “hostility toward non-white immigrants” likely influenced the decision to end protections for Haitians.
An appeals court upheld that decision. However, the Supreme Court has already shown its cards in this matter. It allowed the end of protections for Venezuelans while litigation continued.
A repeating pattern
This is part of a cycle. Trump has won several battles on the high court’s short-term emergency docket. Those victories have allowed him to advance key parts of his immigration agenda.
Now they want to consolidate that advantage. They ask for a ruling that establishes that courts cannot question actions of the Department of Homeland Security within “a broader effort.”
Attorney General D. John Sauer accuses lower judges of showing “persistent disregard” for previous decisions. He warns that this cycle “will likely repeat itself over and over again” without intervention from the high court.
Sauer has already appealed a ruling that maintains protections for Syrians. He now plans to appeal another decision that affects about 350,000 Haitians.
But not everyone is silent. More than 175 former judges intervened with a forceful argument: emergency rulings do not constitute established law. They ask that the normal appeals process be allowed.
Meanwhile, lives hang in the balance. Protections for Haitians began in 2010 after a catastrophic earthquake. They were extended multiple times…until now.
The question is whether the Supreme Court will be the last retaining wall or the key that opens the door to mass deportations.
