The United States Supreme Court has ruled that the Trump administration can immediately strip humanitarian protections from roughly 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians living legally in the country, paving the way for their deportation.
Thursday's 6-3 decision in Mullin v. Doe overturned lower court orders that had blocked the removal of Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a programme created by Congress in 1990 to shield migrants from deportation when their home countries are too dangerous to return to. The ruling effectively hands immigration authorities unchecked power to end the programme, with the conservative majority finding that courts have no basis to intervene.
It is the latest in a string of Supreme Court victories for Trump on immigration, and comes on the same day the court issued a separate ruling clearing the way for the revival of a policy restricting asylum seekers.
What is TPS and who loses it?
TPS currently covers around 1.3 million people from 17 countries. Haitians were first granted the status in 2010 following a catastrophic earthquake, with protections repeatedly extended as gang violence displaced more than a million people inside the country. Syrians received it in 2012, when their country descended into civil war.
