The US Supreme Court has delivered a major ruling affecting approximately 1.3 million immigrants living in the United States.
The conservative majority ruled 6-3 that Temporary Protected Status (TPS) determinations and their selection processes are generally exempt from judicial review.
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This decision allows the Trump administration to terminate deportation protections much more easily. Even individuals who have resided legally in the country for decades are affected.
Constitutional claims remain the sole exception to this ruling. These involve fundamental rights like equal protection.
Justice Samuel Alito noted that the specific constitutional claim alleging racial animus against Haitians by the Trump administration appeared unlikely to succeed on the merits.
Justice Elena Kagan issued a sharp warning in her dissent regarding the unchecked power given to the homeland security secretary.
"After today, a Secretary [of homeland security] can announce to the world that she didn't consult with anyone – more, that she didn't evaluate country conditions at all – before making, extending, or terminating a TPS designation.
And the courts will be powerless to intervene," Kagan said.
Kagan cited past derogatory remarks about immigrants of color to argue that racial undertones influenced the decision to remove Haitian residents.
"The references – of filth, disease, and primitiveness – are shot through with racial stereotypes and tropes ...
The statements fairly shout, in their racial undertones and overtones alike, that race entered into the President's resolve to remove Haitians from this country," she wrote.
