Supreme Court hears case pushing to end legal protections for Haitian and Syrian immigrants

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court will hear arguments on the Trump administration’s push to end legal protections for people fleeing war and natural disasters from countries around the world, including Haiti and Syria.

However, the court refused to immediately lift protections for hundreds of thousands of people on Monday, allowing them to live and work in the United States legally amid the administration’s broader crackdown on immigration.

He watches: Haitians in Ohio City live in fear and uncertainty amid a court battle over protected status

The case will be heard in April, a fast-track date for the country’s highest court, and a decision is expected weeks or months later.

The conservative-majority court has sided with the Trump administration on the issue before and allowed the temporary legal status of a total of 600,000 people from Venezuela to end while lawsuits continued, exposing them to potential deportation. The court did not explain its legal justifications, as is usual in its emergency file.

The Trump administration filed emergency appeals after lower courts blocked the immediate termination of the program for 350,000 people from Haiti and 6,000 people from Syria.

The administration asked the court to overturn those decisions, hear arguments, and issue a broad ruling that prevents courts from interfering when the Department of Homeland Security decides to end protections.

The Department of Homeland Security has sole authority over the program, which is designed to be temporary, the Justice Department said.

The Attorney General, Dr. John Sawyer in court documents: “Lower courts are once again attempting to obstruct major policy initiatives of the executive branch in ways that specifically harm the national interest and foreign relations.”

But immigration lawyers said both countries remain largely in crisis and people cannot return safely.

“Without a functioning government, Haiti is a country in turmoil. Rape, kidnapping, and murder are rife, while food, housing, and medical care are scarce,” the lawyers wrote, pointing to reports that four Haitian women were recently found dead months after they were deported from the United States.

Lupe Aguirre, director of the International Refugee Assistance Project, said Syrians were relieved they would remain protected for now, but he was disappointed that the court agreed to hear the case before it had made its way fully through the lower courts.

Courts in New York and Washington, D.C., have agreed to delay the end of protections, concluding that “hostility toward non-white immigrants” likely played a role in the decision to end protections for Haitians. During his presidential campaign, Trump amplified false rumors that Haitian immigrants were kidnapping and eating dogs and cats.

The appellate courts left the decisions in place.

A total of about 1.3 million people fleeing armed conflict, natural disasters and political instability in countries around the world have been granted temporary protected status. Federal authorities said conditions in the affected countries had improved and denied that racial hostility played any role.

The protections were first granted to Haitians in 2010 after a catastrophic earthquake, and have been extended several times amid continuing gang violence that has displaced more than 1 million people, according to court documents.

Protection was first granted to Syrians in 2012, during a civil war that lasted more than a decade before the fall of President Bashar al-Assad’s government in late 2024.

Congress created TPS in 1990 to prevent deportations to countries experiencing natural disasters, civil wars, or other dangerous conditions. The designation is granted in 18-month increments by the Secretary of Homeland Security.

It allows people to live and work legally in the United States, although it does not provide a path to citizenship. The Department of Homeland Security has moved to end the program for people from multiple countries since Republican Donald Trump returned to the White House.