The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from moving forward with plans to end protection for some 6,000 Syrians and about 350,000 Haitians who were granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS) by Presidents Obama, Biden, and Trump. At the same time, the court set expedited arguments for April and a likely decision by the end of June.
Federal law lets presidents designate TPS for people in the U.S. whose home countries face armed conflict, natural disasters, or other extraordinary temporary conditions. The Trump administration is seeking to end TPS for people from 13 countries, including Myanmar, Nepal, Honduras, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Cameroon, Yemen, Somalia, Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Venezuela.
In two emergency appeals, the administration asked the Supreme Court to block lower-court orders that have preserved TPS for Syrians and Haitians while litigation continues. Solicitor General D. John Sauer urged immediate review, saying lower courts have persistently disregarded the high court’s actions in other TPS cases.
In an unsigned order, the court agreed expedited review of broader TPS questions is needed and outlined issues to be argued in April. The court will consider whether TPS designations are subject to judicial review and, if so, whether TPS holders have valid legal claims. It will also address whether TPS holders’ equal-protection claims fail on the merits. There were no noted dissents in the order.
TPS allows nationals of specific countries to live and work temporarily in the U.S. while conditions in their homelands—such as armed conflict, environmental disaster, or other extraordinary temporary circumstances—are addressed. Syrians have been eligible for TPS since 2012, amid the Assad regime’s brutal crackdown; Trump extended their status in 2018. Haitians have held TPS since 2010 following a magnitude-7.0 earthquake and subsequent instability; Biden extended their status in 2021.
Late last year, then-Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced she would revoke TPS for Haiti and Syria, finding the countries no longer met program requirements. Unlike two other TPS matters in the past year, Monday’s order is the first time the court did not immediately grant the administration’s request to end a country’s TPS designation.
In May 2025, the court allowed the administration to terminate TPS for Venezuelans while appeals proceeded; Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the sole noted dissenter in that unsigned order. After further appeals, the court reached the same result in October.
