SCOTUS Allows Trump Administration to Revoke Legal Status for 500K Illegal Aliens

The Supreme Court has allowed the Trump administration to revoke temporary protected status for 500,000 illegal aliens living in the U.S.  

In a 7-2 ruling on Friday, the justices lifted a lower court’s order that barred the Trump administration from deporting illegal aliens from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela who entered the U.S. under the Biden administration parole program.  

The court’s decision comes in response to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s efforts to end the Biden-era parole policy that allowed migrants from the four countries to fly directly into the U.S. and be transported into the interior of the county.  

On his first day back in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the Department of Homeland Security to “terminate all categorical parole programs,” including the “processes for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans.”  

In March, the Department of Homeland Security issued a notice announcing the official termination of the program, effective on April 24, but a federal judge blocked DHS from revoking legal status for the illegal aliens in the U.S. under the parole program. 

The Trump administration’s action was challenged in a federal court in Massachusetts, which stayed DHS’ action. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit upheld the federal court’s decision. The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to undo the lower court’s stay. 

The Supreme Court’s order allows the Trump administration to move forward with plans to terminate the legal status of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela migrants while an appeal is pending before the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals. 

“Today’s decision is a victory for the American people,” Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary, said in a statement.

“Ending the [Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela] parole programs, as well as the paroles of those who exploited it, will be a necessary return to commonsense policies, a return to public safety, and a return to America First,” McLaughlin said.

Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor issued a dissenting opinion from the order granting the Trump administration its request for a stay.  

“The court has plainly botched this assessment today,” Jackson wrote in her dissent. “It requires next to nothing from the Government with respect to irreparable harm. And it undervalues the devastating consequences of allowing the Government to precipitously upend the lives and livelihoods of nearly half a million noncitizens while their legal claims are pending.”

The Supreme Court’s ruling Friday comes just two weeks after the justices issued an order allowing the Trump administration to proceed with plans to strip temporary protected status from thousands of illegal aliens from Venezuela living in the U.S.  

This article has been updated since publication with additional information.