this United States Supreme Court The Trump administration was allowed on Thursday to revoke the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) of 350,000 Haitian immigrants and 6,000 Syrian immigrants in the United States. The Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision means Haitian and Syrian immigrants living under TPS could be deported.
After making a decision, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller spoke to reporters and detailed the consequences of the ruling for those it affects. Asked whether the ruling would lead to deportations, Miller responded in the affirmative, suggesting steps would be taken soon.
“Do you want the government to deport people who have lost their TPS status as a result of this ruling?” Miller asked reporters at the Capitol.
“Well, of course,” he said. “if [they] No longer have status in this country, then you should be deported. “
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Overall, the Trump administration welcomed the Supreme Court ruling, which paves the way for mass deportations. White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson issued a statement after the verdict but did not directly mention the deportation plan.
“This is a huge victory for the Trump Administration. Today, the Supreme Court affirmed what President Trump has maintained all along: Temporary Protected Status is, by definition, temporary,” Jackson wrote in a statement.
Does TPS removal mean automatic deportation?
The Supreme Court ruling has raised concerns among Haitian and Syrian communities about possible mass deportations. However, cancellation of TPS status does not necessarily mean automatic deportation. There are other pathways, such as seeking asylum status in the United States, which allow people to stay if TPS is lifted.
The Supreme Court issued two similar decisions in 2025, giving the Trump administration the green light to cancel TPS for some 60,000 Venezuelans living in the United States. A series of flights to Venezuela have been used for deportations, but the total number of deportations is estimated to be between 8,000 and 9,000 people.
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SCOTUS sharply divided over TPS decision
Despite the 6-3 vote in favor of cancellation, which experts believe could pave the way for the government to revoke more communities’ TPS status, there was a sharp divide between conservative and liberal justices. So much so that Jude Samuel Alito, who wrote the decision for the majority, clashed with liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor over the decision.
Another liberal judge, Elena Kagan, pointed to Trump’s allegedly derogatory remarks about Haitians, emphasizing that they had similar racial “overtones and implications.” Before her remarks, Justice Alito said the statements cited by the plaintiffs in the case were “insufficient to show that the termination of Haiti’s TPS designation was based on the race of the Haitian people.”
