Trump administration uses judiciary to end temporary protection status for Syrians
US President Donald Trump's administration has asked the Supreme Court to intervene in its efforts to lift deportation protections for some 6,000 Syrians living in the United States.
In an urgent memo from the Supreme Court, the Justice Ministry called for a judge's decision in November to be overturned and to prevent the administration from ending the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Syrians, while the lawsuit challenging the decision continues.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who was appointed by Republican President Trump in September, announced that the "Syria Protection Program designation" would end, noting that the situation there "no longer meets the criteria for an ongoing armed conflict that poses a serious threat to the safety of returning Syrian citizens."
Overuse of the software
U.S. Judge Catherine Vaila blocked the Trump administration in November from ending the temporary protection status for Syrians, and a U.S. appeals court in New York on Feb. 17 refused to stay the order.
The Justice Department said in a memo that lower courts were ignoring previous Supreme Court orders in cases related to Syria's classification in the Temporary Protection Program, and suggested that the Supreme Court consider and hear arguments in the dispute, given the "continued disregard by lower courts" of the Supreme Court's proceedings.
The administration claimed thatthe program had been misused and that many migrants no longer deserved protection, as Syrians were first granted temporary protected status in 2012 during the administration of former President Barack Obama.
The Trump administration says the temporary protection program has been overused, and that many migrants no longer deserve protection, while Democrats and immigrant advocates say that beneficiaries of the program may be forced to return to dangerous conditions, and that employers in the United States are dependent on their work.
What does temporary protected status mean?
This is the third time the administration has turned to the Supreme Court in connection with its efforts to end this protection for migrants. The court had sided with the administration on the previous two occasions, which concerned the revocation of protection for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans.
Temporary protected status is a humanitarian designation guaranteed by U.S. law to immigrants from countries experiencing war, natural disasters or other disasters, and protects people with such status from deportation and allows them to work in the United States.
The Trump administration's Department of Homeland Security moved to end the protection status of migrants from 12 countries, including Syria, and similar lawsuits have ended up in court rulings that currently block the termination of protections for people from countries such as Ethiopia, South Sudan, Haiti, Syria and Myanmar.