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The Supreme Court approved President Donald Trump's administration's revoking of temporary legal status to more than 500,000 immigrants who were granted temporary legal status during the Biden administration on Friday (May 30), NBC News reports.
A granted emergency application filed by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem sought to end the program launched by former President Joe Biden, which allowed 532,000 nationals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela permission to temporarily work and live in the United States. Liberal justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor were the only Supreme Court justices who dissented, according to a brief order.
"The Court has plainly botched this assessment today," Jackson wrote. "It requires next to nothing from the Government with respect to irreparable harm. And it undervalues the devastating consequences of allowing the Government to precipitously upend the lives and livelihoods of nearly half a million noncitizens while their legal claims are pending. Even if the Government is likely to win on the merits, in our legal system, success takes time and the stay standards require more than anticipated victory."
The Trump administration contested a ruling made by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, who ruled that it couldn't sweep each person's status away without an individualized determination, a decision that has been paused amid ongoing litigation.
"The Supreme Court has effectively greenlit deportation orders for an estimated half a million people, the largest such de-legalization in the modern era," said Karen Tumlin, a lawyer who represents affected immigrants at Justice Action Center.
"I cannot overstate how devastating this is: The Supreme Court has allowed the Trump Administration to unleash widespread chaos, not just for our clients and class members, but for their families, their workplaces, and their communities," she added.