Washington | Arab Canada News

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday allowed President Donald Trump's administration to move forward with revoking the legal status of more than 500,000 migrants from Latin America, a decision that has sparked widespread political controversy and increasing human rights concerns.

According to an official court document, the court did not attach its decision with a legal explanation or a specific signature, but there was an explicit dissent from Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor, who warned of "devastating consequences" of this decision on the lives of hundreds of thousands of migrants, stating that they were "uprooted from their lives while their legal applications are still pending."

A Turning Point in U.S. Immigration Policy

The Trump administration announced last March its intention to end the temporary legal status granted to citizens of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, which was established under a special protection program launched by former President Joe Biden, aimed at providing protection for migrants fleeing their countries due to political crises or humanitarian disasters.

This decision represents a significant setback for this program, known by the abbreviation "TPS" (Temporary Protected Status), which hundreds of thousands of migrants have benefitted from to live and work legally in the United States.

Trump Intensifies His Campaign Promises

The Supreme Court's decision comes amid Trump's second campaign for the presidency, during which he has devoted a large part of his rhetoric to pledges to deport millions of "illegal immigrants" and stop what he described as the "organized invasion of the U.S. borders."

The U.S. president also recently launched a "paid deportation" program, aimed at encouraging migrants to leave the United States voluntarily in exchange for financial incentives, which has been described by human rights organizations as a "disguised expulsion plan."

Human Rights Concerns and Warnings of Humanitarian Consequences

Immigration and human rights organizations have strongly criticized the decision, considering it endangers the lives of hundreds of thousands by risking their return to unsafe or unstable countries. The American Freedom Forum stated that the decision represents a "serious regression from fundamental humanitarian commitments," urging Congress to intervene to enact legislation that stops what it described as "silent mass deportation."