The US Supreme Court has largely supported President Donald Trump’s restrictive immigration agenda, with several recent rulings making it easier to deport people and refuse entry to the US. The court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, has green-lighted the administration’s policies targeting both legal and illegal immigrants.
Recent Rulings
In one of its latest decisions, the court allowed the administration to strip hundreds of thousands of Haitian and Syrian immigrants of their Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a humanitarian designation that lets migrants from nations stricken by war or catastrophe live and work in the US while it is unsafe for them to return to their home countries.
Legal experts say the practical effect is grim for immigrants now losing their status, as they face a choice of staying and risking detention or returning to countries that the US State Department warns against any travel to due to widespread violence, crime, terrorism, and kidnapping.
The court also ruled that border agents do not need to meet the high standard of ‘clear and convincing evidence’ that a lawful permanent resident has committed a crime before refusing to allow them back into the country after a trip abroad.
Reaction to the Rulings
Elora Mukherjee, director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School, criticized the court’s decisions, saying, ‘The Trump administration has turned the immigration system into a deportation machine.’ Ahilan Arulanantham, an immigration law expert at UCLA, added that the court’s consistent rulings against the rights of immigrant communities fit a pattern.
However, Department of Homeland Security General Counsel James Percival welcomed the rulings, saying they were ‘victories for the rule of law and common sense.’ The administration has said it may seek to revive the ‘metering’ policy, which allows officials to turn away asylum seekers when US-Mexico border crossings are overburdened.
Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
