The fate of many people living in the United States legally could be decided today. If president Trump prevails in two cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, he could move forward with mass deportations of Haitian immigrants here under legal protected status.
Arguments lasted for more than an hour inside the courthouse on Wednesday. Immediately, the court is weighing the specific case of about 350,000 Haitians and more than 6,000 Syrians. But its decision could ultimately affect more than a million people from more than a dozen countries.
In 1990, Congress passed a law that allowed people who were fleeing countries that are dealing with wars, political issues or even national disasters to live in the United States on a temporary basis. This was known as Temporary Protected Status, or TPS.
RELATED NEWS | Supreme Court is set to weigh continued TPS protections for Haitians
But last year the Trump administration started to take steps to withdraw TPS from people from some of those countries, saying TPS was no longer in the best interest of the United States.
Administration officials have argued that conditions in some affected countries are improving enough that people may be able to return home.
But attorneys who are representing people from Haiti and Syria said that is not the case.
One of the attorneys representing Haitians with TPS told Scripps News if they return to Haiti, they're more likely to be kidnapped or possibly even be murdered.
The high court may rule on the case before the end of the term, which is usually sometime in June or July.
