Supreme Court Weighs Ending TPS for 350,000 Haitians and Syrians

Hundreds of thousands of people who have lived, worked and raised families in the United States for more than a decade now face the real prospect of deportation. The Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday on whether the Trump administration can terminate Temporary Protected Status for roughly 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 to 7,000 Syrians, a decision that could ripple across protections for 1.3 million people from 17 countries.

At the core of the dispute lies a single unresolved tension: Does federal law allow the homeland security secretary to decide when conditions in a foreign country have improved enough to end TPS, or can courts review those choices for procedural compliance and possible improper motives? The 1990 statute creating the program states that the secretary's determinations on designation, termination or extension "shall not be subject to judicial review." The Trump administration, through Solicitor General D. John Sauer, told the justices this language means exactly what it says. Lower courts in New York and Washington blocked the terminations anyway. One judge found it "substantially likely" that hostility to nonwhite immigrants influenced the Haitian decision. Another cited similar procedural shortcomings for Syrians.

The government appealed. It argues that Kristi Noem, then homeland security secretary, properly consulted agencies, reviewed country conditions and concluded that neither Haiti nor Syria still faced the "extraordinary and temporary conditions" the law requires. Noem cited post-Assad progress toward stable governance in Syria after the longtime president's fall in late 2024. For Haiti she pointed to reduced disaster impacts even as gang violence persists. The State Department still lists both nations under "do not travel" advisories citing widespread risks of kidnapping, robbery and other violence. Those warnings, however, do not control the narrower TPS legal test.

Haitians first received protections after the 2010 earthquake that killed more than 200,000. Syrians gained them in 2012 amid civil war. Both designations were extended repeatedly across administrations, including during Trump's first term for Syria. The current effort is not isolated. The administration has ended TPS for 13 countries since January 2025, according to court filings. Last year the Supreme Court allowed termination for 600,000 Venezuelans through emergency orders that did not explain the justices' reasoning. A final ruling in the Haitian and Syrian cases is expected by early summer.

Lawyers for the migrants counter that the secretary short-circuited required interagency reviews and that the Haitian termination reflected unlawful racial animus. They cited Trump's past descriptions of Haiti as a "shithole country" and 2024 campaign claims about Haitian immigrants in Ohio. The administration responded that such statements concerned illegal immigration policy and did not mention race. One filing from migrant advocates referenced four Haitian women deported in late 2025 or early 2026 who were later found beheaded; that specific claim was not corroborated by other outlets. Plaintiffs also noted many TPS holders work in essential roles such as nursing assistants and that abrupt loss of status has already cost some their jobs and housing.

Earlier this month the House passed legislation to extend Haitian TPS through 2029 with a handful of Republicans joining Democrats. The Senate has not acted and the White House has signaled a veto. A ruling for the administration would likely accelerate similar reviews for remaining TPS countries including Somalia, Myanmar and Ethiopia. A ruling against it could require fresh, documented assessments before any further terminations.

The case arrives amid the court's consideration of other Trump immigration measures, including birthright citizenship limits. Whatever the outcome, the decision will clarify how much latitude executive agencies have when Congress writes a statute that appears to insulate their calls from judicial second-guessing. For Maryse Balthazar, a Haitian nursing assistant who has lived in the United States since the 2010 earthquake, the stakes are immediate: continued legal work or the prospect of returning to a country where she says she has no intact home.