The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday terminated temporary protected status for over 300,000 Haitian and Syrian immigrants living in the United States, a decision that strips legal status from 40,000 New Yorkers.
The court’s 6-3 decision overturns that of lower federal courts, which had, until this point, prevented Trump’s Department of Homeland Security from terminating the TPS program that allows immigrants experiencing unsafe conditions in their home countries to live and work in the United States.
It clears the way for the Trump administration to imminently deport Haitians and Syrians who hold TPS designations.
The majority of the country’s high court said the lower courts that had weighed in had done so incorrectly, ruling that the judiciary is not permitted to review federal immigration decisions like this from DHS, as the law creating the program kept the courts out of the process.
“The Secretary’s TPS designation decisions are not subject to judicial review,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the court’s conservative majority. “There is no judicial review of any determination of the [Secretary of Homeland Security] with respect to the designation, or termination or extension of a designation, of a foreign state.”
The court’s three liberal justices dissented. Justice Elena Kagan wrote that she believed the conservative majority’s decision was incorrect, and that those arguing in support of Haitian and Syrian TPS should have prevailed on their arguments that the Trump administration’s decision to terminate their legal status was “racially discriminatory,” pointing to statements Trump made that Haitians were “eating the cats [and] the pets of the people that live [in Springfield, Ohio]” before terminating their TPS.
“[The] decision to terminate Haiti’s TPS designation was motivated, at least in part, by racial animus,” Kagan wrote. “The evidence [the Haiti plaintiffs] have offered includes statements by the President so repellent and racially inflected that the majority declines to put them in print.”
Trump has been trying to end temporary protected status for Haitians, which has existed since 2010, since last February, when his DHS issued a notice that the legal status for hundreds of thousands in the U.S. would end in August of last year; and again in February of this year, when dates had been put on hold by lower court rulings.
New York pols blast SCOTUS ruling, work to protect affected immigrants
Gov. Kathy Hochul speaks to the media during a rally with immigration advocates, on the day of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing the Trump administration to strip Temporary Protected Status (TPS) protections from hundreds of thousands of Haitian and Syrian migrants, in Manhattan on June 25, 2026.REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Gov. Kathy Hochul, Attorney General Letitia James, and other elected officials condemned Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling, warning that the decision could throw thousands of New Yorkers into fear, strip work authorization from frontline workers, and destabilize families across the city.
Speaking at an emergency press conference at 1199SEIU headquarters in Manhattan, the officials and immigrant advocates said TPS holders had come to the United States legally, built lives in New York and filled critical jobs, including in health care, only to face the threat of deportation to countries they said remain unsafe.
They all framed the ruling as both a humanitarian crisis and a direct threat to New York’s workforce. They said Haitian and Syrian TPS holders are not only immigrants seeking safety, but also neighbors, caregivers, union members, taxpayers, and workers who help keep the city and state running.
Hochul said TPS had long protected people fleeing war, political turmoil, starvation, and violence, and said many of those affected came to the country legally before the Trump administration moved to withdraw their protections. She warned that ending TPS could hurt New York’s fragile health care system, pointing to workers who care for elderly people, children, people with disabilities and other vulnerable New Yorkers.
“Who’s going to show up tomorrow to take care of Grandma?” Hochul said.
James called the ruling “cruel” and “reckless,” saying TPS holders are “our neighbors,” “our coworkers,” “our classmates,” “our caregivers,” “our union members” and “our loved ones.” She said Haitian and Syrian immigrants with TPS had built families, careers and businesses in New York while paying taxes and strengthening their communities.
The state attorney general said her office had filed multiple amicus briefs opposing the termination of TPS, including before the Supreme Court, and argued that Haiti and Syria remain unsafe because of violence, instability and humanitarian crises.
Mamdani cast the ruling as an attack on New Yorkers who have helped build the city as health care workers, teachers and organizers.
“I want to be clear, you are a New Yorker today, tomorrow, and every day, you are a New Yorker,” Mamdani said. “As health care workers, as teachers, as organizers, you have not just made your home in New York City, you have dedicated your lives to New York City.”
He said the ruling had opened the door to “fear, instability, and the threat of deportation for so many,” but said City Hall would stand with affected New Yorkers.
“They may traffic in cruelty, yet we will lead with something even more powerful than that: solidarity,” Mamdani said. “City Hall will stand with you and stand up for you.”
He said that the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs will share additional information and resources “soon,” and if people had questions about your status or needed legal assistance, they could call the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs Legal Support Hotline at 800-354-0365 for free and confidential help.
Legal impacts of TPS ruling
Geoff Pipoly and Andy Tauber, the attorneys who argued in support of TPS in front of the Supreme Court, said the ruling would “directly result in thousands of innocent people dying violent, needless deaths.
“It’s a very sad day, not only for Haitian TPS holders but for anyone who believes, as we do, that immigrants are one of America’s greatest strengths,” the attorneys said.
Attorneys for Haitians cannot appeal to any other court to overturn the decision. Pipoly and Tauber urged the Senate to pass legislation, introduced by U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), that would extend temporary protected status for the immigrants until 2029.
“The responsibility to save these lives is now with Congress—and we urge the Senate to pass the extension of TPS now pending in that chamber,” the legal team said.
Schumer called the high court’s decision “cruel and inhumane,” urging his colleagues to pass his bill.
“Instead of showing basic humanity, Donald Trump and this Court have chosen fear, chaos, and cruelty,” Schumer said. “I have introduced legislation to extend TPS for Haitians, and will keep fighting to protect Haitian and Syrian families from being forced back into danger. America should not turn its back on people who came here seeking safety.”
The legislation was passed by the House of Representatives in April. U.S. Rep. Laura Gillen (D-NY) who sponsored the bill in that chamber, said she was calling on the country’s higher legislative chamber to advance the legislation quickly,
“Removing our neighbors would not just be a humanitarian catastrophe; it would hurt our economy. Haitian TPS recipients are a part of the fabric of our daily lives and pillars of our economy and faith communities,” Gillen said. “I will continue to work with my colleague across the aisle and in both chambers of Congress to ensure it passes in the Senate. This fight is not over.”