Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said the the Supreme Court’s decision on Thursday to allow the Trump administration to end legal protections for migrants fleeing violence and natural disaster in Haiti and Syria, exposing hundreds of thousands more people to potential deportation supports a “cruel and harmful policy” that “makes absolutely no sense.”The 6-3 decision overturns lower court orders and allows the Department of Homeland Security to swiftly end temporary protected status, a program that protects a total of 1.3 million people from 17 countries.”Today’s decision upholding Donald Trump’s cruel and harmful policy makes absolutely no sense and only serves to hurt our immigrant families, our communities, and our economy. Massachusetts stands with our Haitian and Syrian communities today and every day,” Healey wrote. “Donald Trump is ripping away protections from families and children who have fled devastating earthquakes, violence and other humanitarian crises to build safe, productive lives here in Massachusetts and across the country. These are people who are raising families, paying taxes, caring for our loved ones, opening businesses and filling critical jobs. Haitian and Syrian immigrants are our neighbors, coworkers, caregivers, health care workers, business owners and friends. They have become part of the fabric of our communities and a foundation of our economy. They deserve better than this, and I know our country is better than this.”The Republican administration argued that judges cannot second-guess immigration officials’ decisions about protections that were intended to be temporary.The court’s conservative majority agreed, finding that the law creating the program keeps courts out of the process. “The Secretary’s TPS designation decisions are not subject to judicial review,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote.Immigration lawyers said the countries at issue remain unsafe for migrants to return and they argued that the administration ended the protections in an unlawfully hasty process tinged by racial animus. During Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, he amplified false rumors that Haitian immigrants were abducting and eating dogs and cats.The court majority found that the statements from Trump and his administration were not “overtly racial.” Alito said that Haitian people should not face character attacks. “But whatever one may think of the cited statements, they are insufficient to show that the termination of Haiti’s TPS designation was based on the race of the Haitian people,” he wrote.The court’s three liberal justices dissented, writing that the law does allow for judges to step in if officials sidestep the process for ending the protections. Race, meanwhile, does appear to have played a role, Justice Elena Kagan wrote.“The statements fairly shout, in their racial undertones and overtones alike, that race entered into the President’s resolve to remove Haitians from this country,” she wrote. “Respectfully, I dissent from the Court’s decision that they may instead be put on the next plane.”The United States first granted protections to Haitians in 2010 after a catastrophic earthquake and extended them multiple times amid ongoing gang violence that has displaced more than a million people, according to court documents.Syrians were first granted protected status in 2012, during a civil war that lasted for more than a decade before the fall of President Bashar Assad’s government in late 2024.The program was created by Congress in 1990 to prevent deportations to countries suffering from natural disasters, civil strife and other instability. It allows people already in the country to stay with work permits in increments of up to 18 months, but it does not provide a path to citizenship.Healey said additional information and resources for impacted individuals, families and employers will be made available through the Healey-Driscoll Administration and Attorney General’s Office at: mass.gov/immigrantresources.
BOSTON —
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said the the Supreme Court’s decision on Thursday to allow the Trump administration to end legal protections for migrants fleeing violence and natural disaster in Haiti and Syria, exposing hundreds of thousands more people to potential deportation supports a “cruel and harmful policy” that “makes absolutely no sense.”
The 6-3 decision overturns lower court orders and allows the Department of Homeland Security to swiftly end temporary protected status, a program that protects a total of 1.3 million people from 17 countries.
“Today’s decision upholding Donald Trump’s cruel and harmful policy makes absolutely no sense and only serves to hurt our immigrant families, our communities, and our economy. Massachusetts stands with our Haitian and Syrian communities today and every day,” Healey wrote. “Donald Trump is ripping away protections from families and children who have fled devastating earthquakes, violence and other humanitarian crises to build safe, productive lives here in Massachusetts and across the country. These are people who are raising families, paying taxes, caring for our loved ones, opening businesses and filling critical jobs. Haitian and Syrian immigrants are our neighbors, coworkers, caregivers, health care workers, business owners and friends. They have become part of the fabric of our communities and a foundation of our economy. They deserve better than this, and I know our country is better than this.”
The Republican administration argued that judges cannot second-guess immigration officials’ decisions about protections that were intended to be temporary.
The court’s conservative majority agreed, finding that the law creating the program keeps courts out of the process. “The Secretary’s TPS designation decisions are not subject to judicial review,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote.
Immigration lawyers said the countries at issue remain unsafe for migrants to return and they argued that the administration ended the protections in an unlawfully hasty process tinged by racial animus. During Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, he amplified false rumors that Haitian immigrants were abducting and eating dogs and cats.
The court majority found that the statements from Trump and his administration were not “overtly racial.” Alito said that Haitian people should not face character attacks.
“But whatever one may think of the cited statements, they are insufficient to show that the termination of Haiti’s TPS designation was based on the race of the Haitian people,” he wrote.
The court’s three liberal justices dissented, writing that the law does allow for judges to step in if officials sidestep the process for ending the protections. Race, meanwhile, does appear to have played a role, Justice Elena Kagan wrote.
“The statements fairly shout, in their racial undertones and overtones alike, that race entered into the President’s resolve to remove Haitians from this country,” she wrote. “Respectfully, I dissent from the Court’s decision that they may instead be put on the next plane.”
The United States first granted protections to Haitians in 2010 after a catastrophic earthquake and extended them multiple times amid ongoing gang violence that has displaced more than a million people, according to court documents.
Syrians were first granted protected status in 2012, during a civil war that lasted for more than a decade before the fall of President Bashar Assad’s government in late 2024.
The program was created by Congress in 1990 to prevent deportations to countries suffering from natural disasters, civil strife and other instability. It allows people already in the country to stay with work permits in increments of up to 18 months, but it does not provide a path to citizenship.
Healey said additional information and resources for impacted individuals, families and employers will be made available through the Healey-Driscoll Administration and Attorney General’s Office at: mass.gov/immigrantresources.