Legal battles intensify over Trump administration's attempt to end TPS protections
After the Supreme Court limited judicial review of the administration’s decision to terminate Temporary Protected Status, advocates are filing new constitutional and authority challenges to keep protections for migrants from several countries in place.
Federal courts are seeing a surge of lawsuits aimed at blocking the Trump administration’s plan to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for migrants from Haiti, Syria, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Burma, Somalia and Yemen. The Supreme Court’s June decision held that lower courts lack authority to review the Homeland Security secretary’s procedural choices, but it left open the possibility of constitutional challenges.
Attorneys for TPS recipients have begun filing new claims under the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause, arguing that the revocations deprive migrants of liberty and property interests such as work permits and protection from removal. They also contend that the Secretary of Homeland Security exceeded her statutory authority, which they say remains with the Attorney General under the program’s original legislation.
Judges in Boston and Chicago have so far ordered that TPS designations for Ethiopia, South Sudan and Burma remain in effect while the new arguments are considered. "Everyone’s trying to do procedural wrangling to keep the initial orders that prevented the termination in place for long enough to argue these new claims," said Shane Kadidal of the Center for Constitutional Rights.
The Justice Department maintains that the Supreme Court’s ruling gives the administration full authority to end TPS designations, citing language in the opinion that responsibility for TPS decisions rests with the secretary.
Separate litigation involving Haitian TPS holders seeks discovery of evidence that the revocation was motivated by racial animus, a claim previously rejected by the Supreme Court but not barred from further pursuit.
The outcome of these cases will determine whether thousands of migrants can retain legal status while the government moves to rescind the humanitarian program.