US Supreme Court Hands Trump Victories, Paving Way for Mass Deportations

The conservative majority on the United States Supreme Court has handed two major victories to President Donald Trump’s immigration policy. The rulings pave the way for the government to deport more than one million people from the US while tightening entry routes for new arrivals. Two decisions authored by conservative Justice Samuel Alito have a significant impact on asylum applications at the border and the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) programme. TPS is a form of humanitarian relief that has allowed foreign nationals to live and work legally in the US when their home countries are engulfed in conflict. In the first ruling concerning TPS, the court voted 6-3 that lower courts lack the authority to review the government’s decision to revoke the status. As a result, approximately 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians will be directly affected, and it closes a legal loophole for 11 other countries also targeted by Trump for TPS revocation. The decision sparked fierce debate among the justices. Liberal Justice Elena Kagan excoriated the majority for what she saw as ignoring the precedent of Trump’s racist statements about Haitians during the campaign. ‘It is so repellent and racially charged that the majority refuses to print it,’ Kagan criticised in her dissenting opinion, while quoting Trump’s words accusing immigrants of eating residents’ pets. Meanwhile, the second ruling re-legalises a controversial asylum policy known as ‘metering’. This policy allows border officials to turn back asylum seekers even before they set foot on US soil. The rule was rescinded under President Joe Biden, but the new Trump administration wanted it back as an option for tightening the border. Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor took the symbolic step of reading her dissent aloud from the bench. ‘More people will die,’ Sotomayor wrote. ‘More people will attempt to cross the border illegally, and some will succeed while others will not.’ Tensions peaked when Justice Alito directly rebutted the argument in the courtroom, a very rare occurrence in the traditions of the high court, calling the border policy ‘orderly and humane’. On the other hand, immigrant rights groups and business owners are concerned about the economic impact of the rulings. An analysis by the organisation FWD.us states that Haitians in the US contribute approximately US$5.9 billion to the national economy and pay US$1.6 billion in taxes. The loss of this workforce is predicted to hit the hospitality and nursing home sectors, which are heavily dependent on legal immigrant workers.