A U.S. appeals court recently sided with President Donald Trump on his administration’s decision to end Temporary Protected Status for hundreds of thousands of aliens whose legal status in the United States was recently in limbo.
In a 2-1 ruling, the California-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court decision that had stopped the Trump administration from phasing out so-called Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for people from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua and Sudan. The ruling will also affect the status of people from Honduras and Nepal, a group that filed a separate lawsuit that was suspended last year pending the outcome of this case.
The enrollees from the six countries currently have work authorization through Jan. 4, 2021. The appeals court ruling means that those aliens will be required to find a different way to remain in the United States legally or depart after a wind-down period of at least six months. The decision is likely to be appealed to the Supreme Court, which could extend that outcome.
According to Reuters:
Judge Consuelo Callahan, an appointee of George W. Bush, wrote in a 54-page opinion that the Trump administration decisions to phase out the protections were not reviewable and therefore should not have been blocked. Callahan also rejected a claim by plaintiffs that Trump’s past criticism of non-white, non-European immigrants influenced the TPS decisions.
The Trump administration has rightfully argued that most countries in the program have recovered from the related disasters or conflicts, the reason for the protected status, with the status needlessly being renewed for years.
The Biden campaign has called the TPS decisions “politically motivated” and said that Biden would protect enrollees from being returned to unsafe countries.
For the complete story, please visit Reuters.
