(WASHINGTON DC) – The United States Supreme Court has cleared the way for President Donald Trump to end temporary legal protections for South Sudanese migrants, a ruling that could expose thousands to possible deportation. The decision gives the president broad power to cancel Temporary Protected Status, a programme that has shielded people from countries facing war, disaster or instability.
By a vote of six to three on Thursday, the court rejected claims that the administration cut procedural corners or acted with unlawful racial bias when it moved to strip protections from Haitian and Syrian migrants. Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito said federal judges generally lack the authority to review a president’s decision to grant or revoke the status.
The ruling strengthens the administration’s push to end Temporary Protected Status for nationals from 13 countries. That list includes South Sudan, Venezuela, Honduras, Nicaragua and Ethiopia. Since Trump took office in 2025, the Department of Homeland Security has acted swiftly to shrink the programme.
South Sudanese citizens in the US have held the status since 2016, when armed conflict and a collapsing humanitarian situation made safe return impossible. Human rights groups warn that conditions in the country remain dire, with widespread violence, displacement and severe food shortages. Lawyers for affected migrants say the ruling could force families back into danger.
The court also ruled separately that immigration agents may stop asylum seekers before they reach the southern border to manage surges at ports of entry. That decision may allow the government to bring back a policy used during the first Trump administration.
Justice Elena Kagan issued a sharp dissent. She condemned Trump for making what she called repellent and racially loaded comments about Haitians. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson joined her opinion.
Kagan wrote that the statements were filled with racial stereotypes and tropes about filth, disease and primitiveness. She said it was hard to imagine such language being used about any white community.
Alito responded that none of the cited statements by the president or the homeland security secretary was openly racial. He said the views expressed could rest on reasons unrelated to race, such as economic concerns or support for tighter immigration controls.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson welcomed the ruling as a major win. She said the president had always maintained that temporary protected status is, by definition, temporary.
Lawyers for Haitian migrants said the decision would directly result in thousands of innocent people dying violent and needless deaths.
Representative Mike Lawler, a Republican from New York, said he was asking the administration to allow Haitian status holders to keep their work permits while their immigration cases are decided over the next six months. He said he strongly disagreed with ending Haitian protections at this time.
The ruling does not formally end the legal challenge, but Alito said the migrants contesting the cancellation will likely fail on their claim that it violates the equal protection clause of the constitution.
The court’s decision takes formal effect in roughly 32 days. At that point, affected nationals will lose their work authorisations.
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett joined Alito in the majority.