Supreme Court to consider Trump administration's efforts to end deportation protections for Syrians, Haitians
Washington — The Supreme Court on Monday said it will consider the Trump administration's efforts to roll back temporary deportation protections for hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Syria and Haiti.
While agreeing to take up the legal battle over Temporary Protected Status for the two countries, the Supreme Court did not allow the Trump administration to end the programs while it considers the case. The Justice Department had asked the high court to grant it emergency relief and freeze lower court orders blocking Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's decisions to terminate TPS for more than 6,000 immigrants from Syria and 350,000 immigrants from Haiti.
The Supreme Court instead said in a brief unsigned order that it is deferring consideration of the requests, leaving those lower court rulings in place for now. It set oral arguments in the cases for late April.
The disputes over legal protections for immigrants from Haiti and Syria are the latest involving President Trump's immigration agenda to land before the Supreme Court in its current term. The high court also will hear arguments April 1 on the legality of the president's plan to end birthright citizenship. Decisions in each of the cases will likely come by the end of June or early July.
The Supreme Court has already allowed the administration to lift deportation protections for more than 300,000 Venezuelans in the U.S. while legal proceedings continued. The Department of Homeland Security has also moved to terminate TPS designations for at least a dozen other countries, including Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Somalia and Yemen. The Trump administration has argued that courts cannot review the secretary's TPS determinations.
Congress created TPS in 1990, and the program provides temporary immigration protections for people from countries beset by armed conflicts, natural disasters or other "extraordinary and temporary" conditions that make it unsafe for deportees to return. Migrants from a country designated for TPS generally cannot be removed from the U.S. and are authorized to work for the length of the designation, which is typically 18 months but can be extended.
The dispute over TPS for Haiti
Haiti was first designated for TPS in 2010 after the catastrophic earthquake that left more than 300,000 people dead and devastated the country. The program has since been extended for Haitian immigrants several times, including during the Biden administration in 2021 following the assassination of then-President Jovenel Moïse and again in 2024 because of economic, political, security and health crises.
But after Mr. Trump returned to the White House last year, Noem took steps to rescind TPS for Haiti, effective Feb. 3.
Noem determined the decision to end the protections "reflects a necessary and strategic vote of confidence in the new chapter Haiti is turning" and the "foreign policy vision of a secure, sovereign and self-reliant Haiti." While the secretary acknowledged that certain conditions in Haiti remained "concerning," Noem said parts of the country were "suitable" to return to.
The State Department has warned U.S. citizens not to travel to Haiti because of "kidnapping, crime, terrorist activity, civil unrest and limited health care."
In December, a group of five Haitian nationals challenged Noem's termination of TPS and sought to block the move. A federal district court granted their request, finding in part that Noem's decision to unwind the protections was likely motivated by racial animus.
"Kristi Noem has a First Amendment right to call immigrants killers, leeches, entitlement junkies, and any other inapt name she wants," U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes wrote. "Secretary Noem, however, is constrained by both our Constitution and the [Administrative Procedure Act] to apply faithfully the facts to the law in implementing the TPS program. The record to-date shows she has yet to do that."
Reyes also pointed to derogatory statements Mr. Trump has made about Haitians, including referring to Haiti as a "s***hole" country and, while on the campaign trail in 2024, promoting the conspiracy theory that Haitian immigrants living in Springfield, Ohio, were eating people's pets. City officials said there were no credible reports of Haitian immigrants abducting and eating pets.
The Justice Department appealed Reyes' decision, and a divided three-judge panel on the U.S. appeals court in Washington, D.C., declined to freeze the lower court's decision. Justice Department lawyers asked the Supreme Court last week to step in and allow the Trump administration to rescind the deportation protections for Haitian nationals.
The dispute over TPS for Syria
Syria was designated for TPS by the Obama administration in 2012 after the brutal crackdown by former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Protections for Syrian immigrants were extended several times, including during Mr. Trump's first term. The Trump administration estimates there are more than 6,000 Syrian nationals covered by the program.
But last September, Noem moved to end the program for Syrians, citing in part the collapse of the Assad regime at the end of 2024 and the lifting of sanctions against the country last year. The secretary determined that Syria no longer met the criteria for an armed conflict that jeopardized Syrian nationals returning to the country, and found there are "sporadic, isolated episodes of violence."
The State Department has warned Americans not to travel to the area, citing "terrorism, civil unrest, kidnapping, hostage taking, and armed conflict."
The deportation protections for Syrian nationals in the U.S. were set to end Nov. 21.
But after a group of seven Syrians filed a lawsuit last October challenging Noem's decision to unwind TPS protections, a federal district court delayed the termination. U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla found, in part, that Noem's move to rescind the protections for Syria was based on a political decision to end TPS altogether, citing comments by Mr. Trump and the secretary.
"The president made sweeping and erroneous statements concerning his belief in the legality of the TPS program and its inutility to what can only be fairly described as an anti-immigrant agenda," she said.
Of Noem, the judge said she "endeavored to terminate TPS status whenever presented with an opportunity to do so, resulting in termination decisions that are ground not in law and not in fact, but that are in political considerations simply not relevant under the TPS statute."
The Trump administration filed an emergency appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, and it declined to halt the lower court's decision in February.
While the 2nd Circuit acknowledged that the Supreme Court had twice allowed the Trump administration to end temporary protections for Venezuelans, it said those cases involved a designation for a different country with different circumstances.
The Trump administration sought emergency relief from the Supreme Court at the end of February and argued that the district court's order interfered with the government's foreign policy determinations and its interest in enforcing immigration laws.
