US Supreme Court Ruling Paves Way for Mass Deportations

By a 6-3 vote, the US Supreme Court approved the Trump administration's plan to revoke Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for more than 350,000 migrants from Haiti and 6,100 people from Syria. The court's conservative majority thus overturned earlier rulings by lower courts in New York and Washington, DC, which had blocked the administration's actions on the grounds that it had failed to follow proper procedure in assessing conditions in the countries concerned.

Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the ruling, argued that the law clearly prohibits judicial review of executive decisions on TPS. He also rejected the plaintiffs' claims that the administration's actions demonstrate racial bias.

The decision reinforces Trump's hardline anti-immigration stance, which he has pursued since his return to office last year. In a second ruling on Thursday, the Supreme Court also upheld the government's right to turn away asylum seekers at the Mexican border when border crossings are overloaded, allowing it to resume its "metering" policy.

TPS has so far protected people from countries affected by war or disaster from deportation. Meanwhile, the US State Department continues to warn of extreme violence in Haiti and Syria. The Trump administration argues that the protection was always intended to be temporary. Pro-immigration organizations such as Global Refuge warn of devastating humanitarian consequences for hundreds of thousands of families, as well as the loss of the ability to challenge TPS revocations for other countries in court.

(Reuters, Max)