--- title: "Supreme Court lets Trump end deportation protections for Haitians and Syrians" description: "A divided Supreme Court ruled that federal courts cannot review the administration's decision to end Temporary Protected Status for Haitian and Syrian nationals, clearing the way to strip legal protection from hundreds of thousands of people — including tens of thousands in California." category: "U.S." category_url: https://herald.la/category/us author: "Hana Nakamura" published: 2026-06-26T21:31:15.000Z updated: 2026-06-26T21:31:15.000Z canonical: https://herald.la/article/supreme-court-lets-trump-end-deportation-protections-for-haitians-and-syrians tags: ["supreme-court", "immigration", "tps", "haiti", "syria", "california"] --- # Supreme Court lets Trump end deportation protections for Haitians and Syrians A divided Supreme Court ruled that federal courts cannot review the administration's decision to end Temporary Protected Status for Haitian and Syrian nationals, clearing the way to strip legal protection from hundreds of thousands of people — including tens of thousands in California. The Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that federal courts have no power to second-guess the administration's decision to end Temporary Protected Status for immigrants from Haiti and Syria, a 6-3 decision that removes a key legal shield from hundreds of thousands of people living and working in the United States. The ruling, in *Mullin v. Doe*, fell along ideological lines and hands the executive branch broad, largely unreviewable authority over the program, [according to NPR](https://www.npr.org/2026/06/25/nx-s1-5844292/supreme-court-syrian-haitian-tps). ## What the Court held Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito concluded that the statute governing Temporary Protected Status bars courts from reviewing the Homeland Security secretary's decision to terminate a country's designation. The Court reversed lower-court orders that had temporarily blocked the terminations, allowing the administration to move ahead. The justices also rejected a separate constitutional claim by Haitian plaintiffs that the decision was driven by racial animus. In dissent, Justice Elena Kagan — joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson — pointed to the president's past description of Haiti as a "filthy, dirty, disgusting" country, writing that such language pointed to race as a factor, [as reported by NPR](https://www.npr.org/2026/06/25/nx-s1-5844292/supreme-court-syrian-haitian-tps). The majority found the cited remarks insufficient to prove the termination was based on race. ## Who is affected Temporary Protected Status, created by Congress in 1990, lets the government shield nationals of countries hit by disaster or conflict from deportation and grant them work authorization. It does not provide a path to permanent residency, and designations can be ended when the government determines conditions have improved. Roughly 330,000 Haitians and about 3,800 Syrians held the status at the time of the ruling, [NBC News reported](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-allows-trump-remove-protections-thousands-haitian-syrian-rcna263164). Without it, many will lose work permits and protection from removal in the coming weeks. Because the decision bars judicial review of TPS terminations generally, advocates warn it weakens the legal footing of recipients from other countries as well. ## The California impact California is home to roughly 80,000 TPS holders, [according to LAist](https://laist.com/news/politics/local-response-scotus-ruling-temporary-protective-status), making the state among the most affected. Southern California's Haitian and Arab communities now face the prospect of family separations, since many long-term recipients have U.S.-born children but cannot convert TPS into permanent status. Local advocates described alarm in the ruling's immediate aftermath. "People have been preparing, but how do you prepare to say goodbye to your citizen children?" Jessica Bansal of the National Day Laborer Network told LAist. A Pasadena immigration attorney, Stacy Tolchin, said of the affected workers, "These are the folks that we want in this country." ## What comes next With the courts largely sidelined, supporters of TPS holders say the remaining options are congressional action — a long shot in the current political climate — or applications for other forms of relief on a case-by-case basis. The administration has framed the terminations as restoring the program's intended temporary nature; the dissenting justices and immigrant-rights groups argue the decision gives the executive unchecked power to remove people with deep roots in the country. ## Sources - [Trump can begin deportations of Syrian, Haitian TPS holders, Supreme Court says](https://www.npr.org/2026/06/25/nx-s1-5844292/supreme-court-syrian-haitian-tps) - [Supreme Court allows Trump to remove protections from thousands of Haitian and Syrian immigrants](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-allows-trump-remove-protections-thousands-haitian-syrian-rcna263164) - [Local advocates respond to Supreme Court ruling on Temporary Protected Status](https://laist.com/news/politics/local-response-scotus-ruling-temporary-protective-status)