Supreme Court to decide Trump’s attempt to shut down deportation amnesty for Haitians, Syrians

The Supreme Court said Monday it will take up two cases involving President Trump’s attempt to end deportation amnesties for hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants — but ruled they can remain here while the case is pending.

The case presents big issues, including how deeply judges should read into harsh and disparaging comments and social media posts by Mr. Trump and his top advisors.

Lower courts have said those comments showed “animus” toward migrants, and thus the president’s decision-making was too tainted to stand scrutiny.

The two cases before the justices involve what’s known as Temporary Protected Status for some 350,000 Haitians, and a much smaller number of Syrians.

Trump officials said those lower-court judges have been interfering with presidential powers and must be restrained.

“Given the pattern of lower-court rulings and the division of courts of appeals, this Court should grant review and provide guidance to lower courts. This case provides a suitable vehicle for resolving those cross-cutting questions,” U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the justices in a brief asking them to put the lower cases on hold.

The high court declined that specific request, but did speed the case to its docket.

Oral argument will be held in a month, the court said.

TPS is a grant of leniency that includes a stay of deportation and some taxpayer benefits for migrants of nations that have been battered by natural disasters, suffered war or political instability, or faced an epidemic.

The idea is to give countries a chance to recover, and to ensure that it’s safe enough for citizens to return.

But it’s become a de facto path to immigration for hundreds of thousands. Some Central American nations have been covered by TPS for at least a quarter-century.

Haiti has been covered since the 2010 earthquake, with the status regularly renewed and even expanded during the Biden administration.

President Biden was particularly profligate, expanding the number of people covered by TPS from fewer than 400,000 to roughly 1.3 million by the end of his term.

The Supreme Court last year allowed the Trump administration to curtail TPS for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans, even as that case developed.

That made the decision not to grant a stay of lower-court action in the Syria and Haiti cases all the more striking.

Mr. Trump attempted to curtail TPS in his first term but was stymied by the courts at that point as well, often on the same grounds that his antipathy toward migrants tainted the government’s decision-making.

In blocking the effort to end TPS for Haiti, U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes, a Biden appointee in Washington, said just-relieved Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem harbored a “hostility to nonwhite immigrants.”

“Secretary Noem complains of strains that unlawful immigrants place on our immigration-enforcement system. Her answer? Turn 352,959 lawful immigrants into unlawful immigrants overnight. She complains of strains to our economy. Her answer? Turn employed lawful immigrants who contribute billions in taxes into the legally unemployable,” Judge Reyes wrote in a weighty 83-page ruling. “This approach is many things — in the public interest is not one of them.”