The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled that President Donald Trump has the green light to cancel the temporary protection status granted to hundreds of thousands of border crossers, who were unilaterally shielded from deportation by former President Joe Biden.
The high court granted an emergency application filed by the administration, meaning the White House can now reverse Biden’s decision to granted deportation protections under the federal Temporary Protected Status program. The protections — which were granted by Biden Administration with the stroke of a pen — provided would-be illegal aliens with expedited pathways to citizenship and working papers.
The programs were rapidly expanded under the Biden Administration, which participated in the direct transport and settling of millions of foreign nationals on U.S. soil.
The foreign nationals affected by the termination were directly flown into the United States by the Biden Administration under a program called CHNV, which was ended shortly after President Trump was sworn in on January 20. According to Biden officials, the move was designed to cut down on illegal immigration at the southern border by providing would-be asylum seekers with direct access to the United States.
This claim appears to have been without merit, however, as encounters along the southern border have plummeted to record lows without any such parole program.
Monday’s brief order noted that Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, would have denied the application. The courts other two liberal justices joined all five conservatives in siding with the administration, however, paving the way for the issue to be litigated in lower courts.
At issue before the Supreme Court was a subsequent designation made in October 2023, which was extended this past January just before President Trump took office. It is set to expire in October 2026.
In February, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem sought to roll back the protections so that they would expire this year. The move was then blocked by California-based U.S. District Judge Edward Chen, who claimed the move was racially motivated.
In an emergency application filed by the administration, Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued that the lower court did not properly review Noem’s order. “The court’s order contravenes fundamental executive branch prerogatives and indefinitely delays sensitive policy decisions in an area of immigration policy that Congress recognized must be flexible, fast-paced and discretionary,” he said.
Monday’s ruling will now pave the way for hundreds of thousands of migrants from Haiti, Venezuela, Nicaragua and elsewhere to be deported.