In a major immigration ruling on Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court gave the green light for President Donald Trump’s administration to end certain deportation protections that had been put in place under former President Joe Biden.
The court approved an emergency request from the Trump administration, allowing them to roll back parts of the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program. This program, expanded during the Biden years, had shielded hundreds of thousands of migrants—many from countries like Haiti, Venezuela, and Nicaragua—from deportation, and provided them with temporary legal status and work permits.
Biden’s team had used the program as part of a broader effort to manage migration at the southern border. One initiative, known as CHNV, aimed to reduce illegal crossings by offering some asylum-seekers a legal pathway into the U.S. But with President Trump taking office again in January, the program was shut down almost immediately.
Despite claims by the previous administration that this program helped lower illegal border crossings, border encounters have actually reached historic lows without it—something critics of the policy have pointed out.
In a short order issued Monday, the Supreme Court noted that Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented from the decision. However, the remaining liberal justices joined their conservative colleagues in letting the case proceed in lower courts.
At the heart of the case was a move by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem earlier this year to cancel TPS protections that were about to expire. That action was temporarily blocked by a California judge, who argued the decision might have been racially motivated.
However, Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued in court filings that the administration’s decision was legally sound and urgently needed, saying the delay “undermines essential executive branch authorities” to act swiftly on immigration policy.
With the court’s latest decision, the Trump administration now has the authority to move forward with deportations for thousands of migrants who had been protected under the TPS program. The full impact will unfold in the coming months as lower courts weigh the details and the administration outlines its next steps.