The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments today to determine if 350,000 Haitian and 6,000 Syrian immigrants can remain in the country under Temporary Protected Status.
But immigration advocates have warned tens of thousands more people are at risk of being made eligible for deportation by the Trump administration, depending on how the court rules.
“The TPS case tomorrow exemplifies a larger pattern that should disturb all of us,” America’s Voice Executive Director Vanessa Cárdenas said during a virtual press briefing April 28. “Stephen Miller and his allies in the administration are seeking to make as many people as possible targets for deportation, and a key part of that strategy is to block, strip or ignore the legal status and protections that many immigrants currently have.”
TPS is a program that allows immigrants to remain in the U.S. temporarily if they face persecution or death in home countries ravaged by war, political violence or environmental disasters. Federal law requires that conditions in those countries improve before nationals can be returned to countries of origin.
But as part of its widening deportation campaign, the Trump administration has attempted to abruptly end TPS for groups repeatedly extended by previous presidents due to the continuation of life-threatening conditions in those immigrants’ countries of origin.
Vanessa Cardenas
Cárdenas and other speakers at the press event noted the deportation immunity of Dreamers, immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as young children, also is in the administration’s sights.
But it is the safety of all 1.3 million TPS holders that is immediately at stake as the Supreme Court considers the status of Haitians and Syrians.
“This would be the largest effort to strip legal status documentation in U.S. history,” Cárdenas added. “TPS is just one part of a bigger agenda to strip legal status and protections from as many people as possible to make them deportable, from the naturalized U.S. citizens to revoking parole and visa status to targeting Dreamers.”
The oral arguments will focus on two combined lawsuits, Mullin v. Dahlia Doe, with Syrian plaintiffs, and Trump v. Miot, with Haitian plaintiffs.
At issue is whether Trump’s decision to revoke TPS for those groups is legal. Those decisions have been blocked by lower courts. The administration also seeks to exclude the courts from all issues involving TPS.
The administration appealed directly to the Supreme Court in February after an appellate court refused to hear the government’s case. Justices agreed to hear oral arguments but left the lower-court rulings in place, according to SCOTUSblog.
Cárdenas said it’s all an ominous sign for immigrants who came to the U.S. to escape suffering and death.
“This would be the largest effort to strip legal status documentation in U.S. history.”
“The pattern and motivation of these policies challenges the very foundation of our country as a nation of immigrants, and their objective is clear: Make as many people as possible targets for mass deportation.”
U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., said her Chicago-area constituents are fed up with the anti-immigrant violence the government has unleashed on their neighbors.
“For over a year, the Trump-Miller white nationalist administration has led a war against our communities. They are trying to define who gets to be an American and who gets to experience the promise of safety and refuge, and who doesn’t. Trump and Miller want no one to feel safe unless it’s convenient for them, even if we’ve lived here for decades, even if we were born here, even if this is the place we call home or even if our lives, safety and security depend on staying in this country.”
But Ramirez said there is reason for hope, including in Congress where a bill extending Haitian TPS for three years recently passed out of a House committee using a discharge petition with bipartisan support. The move forced the bill to the floor against the wishes of House GOP leadership.
Other immigration-related measures may get the same treatment and Ramirez said she will be getting behind those efforts.
“It feels like all is doomed, but it’s not. We have to remain hopeful, remain resilient, remain creative and use every single tool at our disposal. And that means using, here in Congress, discharge petitions in a way we’ve never seen before as a way to force a vote on critical supports and protection of TPS.”