JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
The U.S. Supreme Court issued two decisions this morning giving President Trump more power to set immigration policy. One allows the administration to move forward with revoking temporary legal status for hundreds of thousands of people. The other puts limits on how people can claim asylum. NPR's immigration policy correspondent, Ximena Bustillo, is here to break it down for us. Hi.
XIMENA BUSTILLO, BYLINE: Hey, Juana.
SUMMERS: Ximena, let's start with TPS, or temporary protected status. What are the implications of that ruling?
BUSTILLO: In a 6-3 decision, the conservative majority ruled that the president has virtually unrestrained power to end temporary protected status, often called TPS. This was a case specifically about TPS recipients from Haiti and Syria, which total over 300,000 people, but it has broader implications. TPS provides deportation protection and grants work permits, and it's given to people from specific countries affected by war, natural disasters, political instability or any other condition that makes the country unsafe to return to. Each country's designation can last six to 18 months, and that's at the discretion of the secretary of Homeland Security. Now the court is agreeing with the government that making those designations is up to the secretary and not subject to legal review.
SUMMERS: OK, so what happens to the people who are on the program?
BUSTILLO: Well, they need to either adjust their status, which there are very limited ways of doing so, or they need to leave the country. And if they don't do either, they do risk falling out of status, and that could lead to an arrest, detention and ultimate deportation. Many face job loss as well as companies will not be able to continue legally employing thousands of workers. Ira Kurzban is the attorney representing Haitian TPS holders.
IRA KURZBAN: Their families are American citizens. They have American citizen children. So we're talking in a practical manner - respect to all the TPS people - you're talking about millions of people in the United States who contribute to the economy.
BUSTILLO: He argues Haiti, Syria and other countries are just not stable enough for people to return. And many of these people have also been here for decades.
SUMMERS: Now to the second immigration decision from the court today, and that one's related to asylum. What can you tell us?
BUSTILLO: In another 6-3 decision, the court backed a policy that allows Custom and Border Protection (ph) agents to turn away asylum seekers before they cross the U.S. border. The order says asylum seekers need to fully cross the U.S. border with Mexico to claim asylum. So essentially, migrants who are turned back by officials under this policy technically never left the physical Mexican side of the border, so the administration argues they are ineligible to apply for that legal protection to be in the U.S. The ruling effectively further limits who can get permission to even stay in the country.
SUMMERS: Ximena, take stock for us. What do these rulings mean for the administration's broader immigration priorities?
BUSTILLO: Well, both of these rulings reduce legal pathways to enter the country. The administration has a broader goal of mass deportations, and in order to reach that goal, the administration has increased the number of people who are eligible for deportation, even if they are legally here. The ruling on TPS allows the administration to strip existing protections from deportations and permissions to legally work here. The administration has also terminated TPS for nearly every country that had it at the start of President Trump's term. The asylum ruling also limits how migrants can ask for permission to stay. This administration is very focused on immigration enforcement in the interior of the country while also keeping border crossings as minimal as possible. And these rulings allow the government to further change the immigration system.
SUMMERS: NPR's Ximena Bustillo, thanks.
BUSTILLO: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
