Washington, DC – Today, the Supreme Court issued two decisions that hand the Trump administration new power to block asylum seekers from protection and strip legal status from thousands of Haitian and Syrian immigrants.
In Mullin v. Al Otro Lado, the Supreme Court ruled that the government may turn back asylum seekers before they physically step onto U.S. soil, allowing officials to block people from accessing asylum at ports of entry. In Mullin v. Doe, the Supreme Court has now allowed the Trump administration to move forward with stripping Temporary Protected Status from roughly 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians, despite ongoing dangers in both countries.
According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:
“Today’s Supreme Court decisions hand Donald Trump and Stephen Miller even more tools to turbocharge their mass deportation agenda and will further harm not just immigrants but American families as well. These cruel decisions will devastate women and children who are fleeing unimaginable danger; vetted workers who have been in the US for decades making significant contributions; senior citizens who depend on their healthcare providers for life-saving care, and business owners who rely on their workers to sustain their businesses, among many others.
In the case of the TPS ruling, instead of advancing common-sense solutions such as a path to citizenship for hundreds of thousands of workers from Haiti and Syria who have lived, worked, paid taxes and raised families in the US, this administration is terminating away their legal status to make them deportable. Doing so will open the door for more deportations for workers from other countries with TPS designations.
Today’s rulings will make our immigration system more lawless, more chaotic, and more dangerous, giving this administration more power to turn away asylum seekers, delegalize immigrants, and put families at risk of deportation to places our own government warns are unsafe.
Congress needs to step up and provide a permanent solution and a path to citizenship for the millions of people who are vulnerable to deportation.”
