Supreme Court ruled 6-3 Trump has unreviewable power to terminate TPS for 330,000 Haitian and 3,800 Syrian nationals

On June 25, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the Trump administration has virtually unreviewable authority to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for approximately 330,000 Haitian and 3,800 Syrian nationals living legally in the United States. Writing for the conservative majority in Department of Homeland Security v. AlKhorfan, Justice Samuel Alito held that the TPS statute enacted by Congress in 1990 bars courts from reviewing how the president and the Department of Homeland Security exercise their authority to end TPS designations. The ruling blocks lower court orders that had prevented the administration from proceeding with the terminations and clears DHS to immediately revoke TPS status and begin deportation proceedings.

Congress enacted TPS in 1990 to allow fully vetted migrants to live and work legally in the United States when they cannot safely return home due to natural disasters, armed conflicts, or other extraordinary conditions. The U.S. State Department currently warns Americans against traveling to Haiti or Syria due to extreme danger. Every prior president, Republican and Democrat, honored TPS designations; the Trump administration sought to terminate TPS for 13 of the 17 currently designated countries. Lower courts had blocked the Haiti and Syria terminations, and the House of Representatives passed a bill to extend Haitian TPS — but Trump would veto any such legislation.

The racial-animus dimension of the ruling drew sharp dissent from Justice Elena Kagan, who quoted at length Trump's own public statements: calling Haiti a "filthy, dirty, disgusting s-hole country," spreading debunked claims that Haitians "are eating their neighbors' pets," asserting that Haitians are "poisoning the blood" of the United States, and repeatedly asking why the country cannot have more immigrants from "Norway and Sweden." Kagan wrote that "the evidence is there, plain to see in the president's own statements," which even his own lawyers "cannot bear to repeat" in court. Alito's majority rejected this evidence as "political discourse" insufficient to prove racial discrimination. Legal scholars noted the majority's reluctance to acknowledge racial animus even when supported by extensive, direct statements from the president himself.

The ruling exposes roughly 333,800 long-term legal residents to deportation to countries the U.S. government itself deems too dangerous for American travelers. Approximately one-third of the affected Haitian TPS holders work in the U.S. healthcare sector. Many have U.S.-citizen children who would face forced separation. The decision eliminates judicial review as a check on presidential TPS decisions, regardless of the racial character of the president's stated motivations.