Hundreds descend on US Supreme Court for TPS hearing; decision pending

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Trump’s past derogatory statements calling Haiti a “s**hole” country and blaming Black and brown immigrants for “poisoning the blood of America” and having “bad genes” came back to haunt government lawyers on Wednesday as they defended the administration’s efforts to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians and Syrians.

Meanwhile, scores of immigrants, their advocates and other supporters held a pro-TPS rally outside of the country’s highest court as the justices heard arguments from the government defending the Department of Homeland Security’s controversial decision to end TPS. 

The main issue is where DHS, under then-Secretary Kristi Noem, followed the legal procedures to determine whether Haiti and Syria were still facing the disastrous conditions that qualified immigrants from those countries to receive TPS. The court’s decision is expected by late June or early July.

Wednesday’s rally is part of a coordinated campaign that includes an array of groups filing amicus briefs to support keeping TPS in place and introducing a bill in Congress to keep the program active through 2027.

“Everyone is covering all bases,” said Claudette David, of Faith in Action International, which was among the groups that filed a supporting brief with the court.

On Wednesday, she was there with about 100 people at about 9:30 a.m., just before the arguments began.

“Right now, there is a feeling of excitement and camaraderie,” she said during a phone interview after leaving the gathering. “You see Haitians out there, you see Hispanics out there, you see white people, white Americans – everyone’s outside in solidarity.”

Trump’s past statements bring tough questions

As the activists rallied with music, placards and chants, the justices asked the government’s attorney, Solicitor General D. John Sauer, to address several points related to Noem, chiefly why the agency should be able to end the programs without performing the substantive review as Congress requires.

“What was the point of Congress putting this statute into being and having requirements for the secretary if there was no ability for anyone to challenge the secretary?” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson asked Sauer. 

Sauer answered: “Congress may presume, as this court frequently does, that the executive would be presumed to act within the bounds set forth in the law and that Congress provided for ongoing congressional oversight. So, there’s an annual reporting requirement.”

Over the two-hour hearing, a wide range of matters emerged — including foreign policy, national security, crises in Haiti and Syria, their neighboring regions, racial animus, who is considered a white person depending on their country of origin and “chain migration.” One of the most developed, in addition to precedents referenced, was discrimination against immigrants from Black countries.

A few justices in particular questioned Sauer about the claim that Noem’s effort to end the programs was racially motivated. In doing so, they raised questions about Trump’s past statements about Haitian immigrants, including rhetoric describing migrants in demeaning and inflammatory terms.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Jackson quoted the president in exploring the claims of discrimination made by the defendants, represented by Ahilan Arulanantham – on behalf of Syrian TPS holders – and Geoffrey Pipoly – on behalf of Haitian challengers.

“Now, we have a president saying at one point that Haiti is a, quote, ‘filthy, dirty, and a disgusting s**hole country.’ I’m quoting him,” Sotomayor began. 

“He complained that the United States takes people from such countries instead of people from Norway, Sweden, or Denmark, where he declared illegal immigrants, which he associated with TPS, as ‘poisoning the blood of America,’” he said.

“If you could look at those statements in context,” Sauer explained, “they’re clearly talking about problems –”

“What about bad genes,” Jackson interjected. “‘Bad genes,’ quote-unquote.”

Sauer maintained that the decisions were grounded in national security and foreign policy considerations rather than race.

“Again, also not racial,” he responded. “They [the respondents’ lawyers] presented them wrenched from context. You can look at each one of those statements. They’re talking about problems of crime, poverty, welfare, dependency — problems that have been emphasized again and again by not just President Trump, not just the secretary, but many others who favor a tough immigration policy.”

After two hours, the justices completed the arguments.

The court’s decision could reshape how far presidential authority extends in terminating humanitarian protections that have allowed immigrants from crisis-affected countries to live and work legally in the U.S. for years.

Observations from inside the gallery 

Inside the courtroom, a contingent of Haitian attorneys observed the hearing firsthand and were gratified to hear some of the issues raised in the many amicus briefs filed ahead of oral arguments.

Sandra Dieudonne, immediate past president of the Haitian Lawyers Association of New York (HALANY), watched from the gallery with her peers who had filed a supporting document along with the Haitian American Lawyers Association of Illinois (HALA). The brief argued, in part, that Haitian TPS holders face disparate treatment compared with other groups, including white South Africans admitted under a “refugee resettlement” program.

Dieudonne noted that justices pressed the government on whether the agency conducted a substantive review of country conditions before moving to terminate protections, a point central to the challengers’ case.

“There were strong questions about what constitutes a determination and what constitutes a consultation,” she said.

As the legal arguments were aired inside, Dieudonne said the atmosphere among advocates was both emotional and focused and that she herself felt “cautiously hopeful.”

Now with the judicial milestone decision pending, HALANY President Rodney Pepe-Souvenir urged communities to continue advocating for TPS holders to remain legal and demand a path to permanent residency through Congress.

“TPS holders should be very vigilant – listening to what’s happening and encouraging people to continue to call on Congress to push the legislation that was introduced by Ayanna Presley,” she said. “We’re going to stand together and we’re going to make sure that this thing works for us.

“We’re not leaving each other behind,” Pepe-Souvenir added.

Why the Supreme Court is hearing this case 

The Trump administration appealed to the high court after judges in New York and Washington, D.C., agreed to delay the end of protections. One found that “hostility to nonwhite immigrants” likely played a role in the decision to end protections for Haitians.

In the case — “Donald J. Trump, President of the United States, et al.,v. Fritz Emmanuel Lesly Miot, et al.” — the government is appealing lower court orders that blocked DHS from quickly ending TPS for people from Haiti and Syria. If the justices agree with the Trump administration, authorities could potentially strip protections from up to 1.3 million people from 17 countries, exposing them to possible deportation.

Lawyers for about 350,000 migrants from Haiti and 6,000 from Syria who hold TPS say justices can consider whether authorities followed all the steps laid out in the law. They contend that in both cases, the government short-circuited the process. 

Since Trump’s second administration began, DHS has ended the protections for 13 countries. Some people who have lived and worked in the U.S. legally for more than a decade have lost jobs and housing in a matter of weeks, attorneys said.

Protections for Syrians were first granted protected status in 2012, during a civil war that lasted for more than a decade. Haitians joined the program in 2010 after a catastrophic earthquake, followed by ongoing gang violence that has displaced more than a million people.

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Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.

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