WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to allow it to move ahead with ending legal protections for migrants from Syria, in the latest emergency appeal to the nation's highest court.
The Department of Justice wants the court to lift a New York judge's ruling halting the Department of Homeland Security's decision to end temporary protected status
for Syrians while lawsuits play out.The government is also asking
for a broader ruling that could affect other cases over protections for people from other countries as the administration pursues its immigration crackdown.
The conservative-majority court has previously allowed immigration authorities to end legal protections for migrants from Venezuela as litigation continues.
About 6,100 people from Syria have temporary legal status after fleeing armed conflict, according to court documents. Ending those protections could halt their authorization to work legally in the United States and expose more to possible deportation, especially the 800 people with pending applications, according to the International Refugee Assistance Project.
Protections for 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.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem acted to revoke protected status less than a year later, finding that the situation "no longer meets the criteria for an ongoing armed conflict that poses a serious threat to the personal safety of returning Syrian nationals."
Immigration lawyers challenged that decision, arguing that Syria was still wrestling with a humanitarian crisis and the swift revocation of legal protections would force Syrians in the United States to confront “impossible choices.”
Judge Katherine Polk Failla, who was nominated by democratic President Barack Obama, agreed to delay the termination in November. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals left her decision in place.
The administration argues that the department can grant or revoke the temporary protections and judges should not interfere. A response to the administration's appeal is due March 4.
DHS has taken steps to withdraw legal protections that have allowed immigrants from multiple countries to remain in the United States and work legally. That includes a combined total of more than a million people from Venezuela and Haiti. A different judge in Washington recently blocked the administration from ending protections for 350,000 Haitians.
The administration has scored a series of wins on the Supreme Court's emergency docket allowing it to move ahead with key parts of Trump's agenda, though the justices handed him a significant defeat on tariffs last week.
Congress created TPS in 1990 to prevent deportations to countries suffering from natural disasters, civil strife or other dangerous conditions. The designation is granted in 18-month increments by the homeland security secretary.
