Los Angeles – The U.S. Supreme Court today granted the Trump administration’s extraordinary request to consider, on an expedited timeline, the question of whether federal courts have authority to review the Secretary of Homeland Security’s decision to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Syrians and Haitians. In an atypical action, the Court accepted the government’s request that the case be heard before any final decision by the lower courts and set it for full briefing and oral argument within six weeks.

The Supreme Court’s decision to hear the case may potentially affect more than 1 million TPS holders currently challenging the government’s abrupt decision to strip protections from individuals from various other countries, including Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. The National TPS Alliance (NTPSA), a national organization of TPS holders, is challenging the terminations of TPS for these countries (as well as Haiti) in two other cases.

The Trump administration has terminated TPS for every country it has considered, in keeping with statements by President Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and then Secretary Kristi Noem that the Trump administration would “end” TPS entirely. Trump administration officials have also sought to eliminate nearly all other humanitarian programs for refugees, asylum seekers, and other immigrants. 

Congress created TPS as part of the Immigration Act of 1990. It provides a work permit and temporary protection against deportation for individuals from countries facing environmental disasters, armed conflicts, or other crises. The TPS statute has clear requirements, including that the Secretary of Homeland Security evaluates the conditions in a country to determine whether it is safe to return, and to consult with the Department of State and other agencies when determining whether to extend such protection.

Please attribute the following statement on today’s Supreme Court action to: 

“This is the latest in a long series of twists and turns affecting our lives as TPS holders. The White House and Congress for decades have used our lives as footballs, and now we take our fight to the Supreme Court. Our request in all of these arenas is the same: we want equal rights—for our families, for us, and for all people who believe in the promise of the US Constitution. While we call on the courts to protect our rights, we also make an urgent call to Congress to pass legislation to bring stability to all TPS families,” said Jose Palma, Coordinator of the National TPS Alliance.

“Over the last several years, the Supreme Court has aggressively limited the power of federal agencies to act without Congressional authorization, including in immigration cases. Now, the Supreme Court must decide whether it will apply the same rules here, or instead permit the Trump Administration to disregard Congress’s commands. For the thousands of people who have found refuge from violence and disaster through the TPS program, the stakes could not be higher,” said Ahilan Arulanantham, Faculty Co-Director at the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at the UCLA School of Law.

“The Supreme Court must now decide whether it will recognize any legal constraints on the Trump Administration’s ability to de-document over one million TPS holders—many of whom have lived lawfully in this country for decades. The Court’s answer will intimately affect the lives of TPS holders and their families,” said Jessica Bansal, an attorney with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.

“The administration’s attempt to dismantle TPS would strip legal protections from more than one million people who rely on the program because their home countries remain in crisis. Congress created TPS more than thirty years ago to ensure humanitarian protections are applied according to the law—not political discretion. Taking away these safeguards abandons families who rely on the U.S. for safety and undermines the statutory framework Congress enacted. The Supreme Court should reaffirm that TPS decisions must follow the law and preserve the protections Congress intended,” said Emi MacLean, an attorney with the ACLU Foundation of Northern California.

SCOTUS CERTIORARI GRANTED

NOEM, SEC. DHS, ET AL. V. DOE, DAHLIA, ET AL.

25-1084 TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF U.S., ET AL. V. MIOT, FRITZ, E. L., ET AL.

Founded in 2020, the Center for Immigration Law and Policy (CILP) at the UCLA School of Law expands the law school's role as a national leader in immigration law and policy, generating innovative ideas at the intersection of immigration scholarship and practice and serving as a hub for transforming those ideas into meaningful changes in immigration policy. 

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