The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday temporarily barred the administration from ending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for roughly 6,000 Syrians and about 350,000 Haitians, and ordered an expedited hearing in April with a likely decision by the end of June. The move preserves TPS for those groups while litigation continues.
Federal law permits presidents to designate TPS for people already in the United States whose home countries are affected by armed conflict, natural disaster, or other extraordinary temporary conditions. The administration has sought to terminate TPS for nationals of 13 countries, including Myanmar, Nepal, Honduras, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Cameroon, Yemen, Somalia, Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Venezuela, in addition to Syria and Haiti.
In two emergency appeals, the government asked the high court to stay lower-court rulings that kept TPS protections in place for Syrians and Haitians. Solicitor General D. John Sauer urged immediate review, arguing that some lower courts have repeatedly disregarded the Supreme Court’s handling of other TPS disputes.
In an unsigned order, the Court agreed that expedited consideration of broader TPS questions is warranted and set the issues to be argued in April. Justices will address whether TPS designations can be reviewed by courts and, if so, whether TPS recipients have viable legal claims. The Court also will consider whether TPS recipients’ equal-protection claims lack merit. The order listed no noted dissents.
TPS allows nationals of specified countries to live and work temporarily in the U.S. while dangerous or unstable conditions in their home countries are addressed. Syrians have been eligible for TPS since 2012 amid the Assad regime’s crackdown; their designation was extended in 2018. Haitians have held TPS since the 2010 magnitude-7.0 earthquake and ensuing instability; their status was extended in 2021.
Late last year, then-Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced plans to revoke TPS for Haiti and Syria, concluding those countries no longer met program requirements. Monday’s order is the first time in recent TPS litigation that the Court declined to immediately grant the administration’s request to end a country’s designation.
The court previously allowed the administration to terminate TPS for Venezuelans while appeals proceeded in May 2025, with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson the sole noted dissenter in that unsigned order; after further appeals the Court reached the same result in October.