Civil rights leaders are condemning a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that clears the way for the Trump administration to end Temporary Protected Status for people from Haiti and Syria.
Temporary Protected Status is given to immigrants for whom it would be difficult or unsafe to go back to their home country.
As of last March, 1.3 million people from 17 countries were in the U.S. under this designation. About 20,000 of those were in Utah.
Legal experts say Thursday’s ruling means courts generally cannot intervene when the federal government ends a specific Temporary Protected Status designation in a way that draws scrutiny.
Edward Ahmed Mitchell, national deputy director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the group is deeply disappointed by the outcome, which was carried by the court’s conservative majority.
“Ending these protections for hundreds of thousands of Syrians and Haitians will tear families apart, it’ll disrupt workplaces, and it places vulnerable people at risk of harm,” Mitchell said.
Across multiple administrations, Temporary Protected Status designations for Haiti and Syria had been extended several times. They stemmed from catastrophic damage from a natural disaster in Haiti and a brutal crackdown by Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.
Last year, former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said conditions had improved enough for those individuals to return home. But groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations say there is still too much conflict in Syria and that Haiti remains in disarray.
Mitchell said he worries about the ruling’s immediate ripple effects on those with these designations, also called TPS.
“The Supreme Court has essentially given a message to the president that it’s open season on TPS holders,” Mitchell said. “The logic of their decision would allow the president to cancel TPS for anyone he wants and avoid judicial review at the same time.”
The council also criticized the court’s conservative justices for not finding that the protection terminations were motivated by race. But Mitchell said he was encouraged that Thursday’s ruling still left some room to revive that argument.
Justice Samuel Alito acknowledged “heated language” by President Donald Trump and other members of his administration but said there was nothing overtly racial.
