The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to allow it to end temporary protections for more than 6,000 Syrians.
It’s the third time the government has urged a judge to rein in a lower court’s effort to block the government from limiting Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which provides protection from deportation to people from countries with unsafe conditions and a path to apply for work authorization.
“The Second Circuit’s ruling is untenable,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote to the justices. “It floutes two previous orders of this court setting aside substantially similar cases in substantially similar positions.”
In addition to immediately intervening to allow the termination agreement to proceed, Saul also called on the judge to handle the case in the normal docket and address broader legal issues “so that this cycle does not repeat itself a fourth, fifth or sixth time.”
Since taking office, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has sought to limit countries’ TPS. Afghanistan, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Haiti, Honduras, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, South Sudan and Venezuela filed lawsuits over the TPS changes.
The Venezuela fight is the first two cases to come before the Supreme Court. Each time, the court issued emergency orders in Noem’s favor.
Noem announced last fall that she would end Syria’s TPS designation, citing the fall of Bashar Assad’s regime and the administration’s embrace of Syrian President Ahmed Salad.
The termination is scheduled to take effect in November.
U.S. District Judge Katherine Failla agreed to block the government from ending TPS for Syria after a group of Syrian TPS holders filed a lawsuit. Former President Obama’s appointees ruled that the termination was likely illegal because it did not adequately consult with other agencies and relied on improper political influence.
The government turned to the Supreme Court after the Court of Appeal refused to overturn Faila’s ruling. It held that the judge had no authority to second-guess Noem’s sentence and that she followed the law.
“Multiple federal courts have found that the Trump administration’s efforts to end Syria’s temporary protected status may be unlawful,” Lupe Aguirre, senior litigation attorney at the International Refugee Assistance Project, which represents the plaintiffs, said in a statement.
“The U.S. government’s claims that it is unreasonable to immediately strip more than 6,100 people of their legal status and work authorization and force them to return to dangerous areas of Syria is an emergency that requires the Supreme Court’s intervention.”
The filing marks the staggering 33rd emergency petition to the Supreme Court by Trump’s second administration. Trump’s critics say it reflects how officials have repeatedly flouted the law, while the administration says it’s a response to lower courts overstepping their authority to block Trump’s agenda.
Updated at 10:44 a.m. ET
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