The Supreme Court has reportedly allowed the Trump administration to strip legal protections from hundreds of thousands of Haitian and Syrian immigrants who have been allowed to live in the US for years. 

The 6-3 ruling reversed decisions by federal judges that had halted the administration from closing Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 350,000 people from Haiti and 6,100 from Syria.

TPS is primarily awarded to individuals whose home countries are unable to support them in the wake of natural disasters. 

In a standalone decision, the court has ruled that the migrants arriving at the border are not authorized to submit an asylum application unless they physically set food on US soil, giving another victory to the Trump administration. 

Notably, they can now be removed or taken into custody by authorities on the basis of their immigration status. The Trump administration praised the decision. 

In this connection, the general counsel for the Department of Homeland Security said: “The T in TPS stands for TEMPORARY, yet many of these designations became de facto amnesty.”

The basic requirement to be physically present in the US to apply for asylum was massively supported in 2016 during the Obama administration. 

The policy called “metering” established a system of laws to restrict the number of asylum seekers applying for legal protection each day on the grounds that the facilities on the US side of the border crossing area were at maximum capacity. 

Nonetheless, the court’s recent ruling allows Trump to restore a significant 2016 policy that was canceled in 2021 under the Joe Biden democratic administration.