Supreme Court hands Trump administration two major immigration victories on asylum and deportation protections

The Supreme Court handed the Trump administration two major immigration victories in 6-3 rulings. The Court ruled that the administration can strip Temporary Protected Status (TPS) from 350,000 Haitian and 6,100 Syrian migrants, holding that the TPS statute blocks judicial review of such terminations. In a separate decision, the conservative majority ruled that the government can turn back asylum seekers before they set foot on U.S. soil, allowing the revival of the restrictive "metering" policy.

Supreme Court TPS rulings

• ▪The Supreme Court's 6-3 ruling overturned lower court decisions by federal judges in New York and Washington, D.C., that had blocked the termination of Temporary Protected Status
• ▪The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the Trump administration can strip Temporary Protected Status from 350,000 Haitian and 6,100 Syrian migrants

Haitian deportation protections

• ▪During his 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump amplified false rumors that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were abducting and eating house pets
• ▪The United States first provided Temporary Protected Status to Haitian migrants following a major earthquake in 2010

Syrian deportation protections

• ▪The State Department warns against traveling to Haiti and Syria, citing widespread violence, crime, terrorism, and kidnapping
• ▪The United States first provided Temporary Protected Status to Syrian migrants in 2012 after Syria descended into civil war

Racial discrimination allegations

• ▪Justice Samuel Alito wrote that Haitian migrants who sued were unlikely to prove that the Trump administration's actions were racially discriminatory under the Fifth Amendment
• ▪Justice Elena Kagan dissented, stating that the Trump administration's decision to remove Temporary Protected Status from Haitian migrants was motivated by racial animus

Border metering policy reinstatement

• ▪The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Mullin v. Al Otro Lado on June 25, 2026, that federal law allows the government to turn back asylum seekers before they physically set foot on United States soil.
• ▪The border metering policy was first introduced under President Barack Obama in 2016 and was formally rescinded by President Joe Biden in 2021

TPS program legal framework

• ▪Temporary Protected Status allows migrants from countries stricken by war, natural disaster, or other catastrophes to legally live and work in the United States
• ▪Justice Samuel Alito held that the law establishing Temporary Protected Status explicitly blocks recipients from seeking judicial relief to postpone status terminations during litigation