Legal advocates in Maine say hundreds of immigrants in the state could now face deportation after the Supreme Court on Thursday cleared the way for President Donald Trump to end protections for Haitians and Syrians.
Lisa Parisio, with the Portland-based Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, said revoking Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, is part of the administration’s broader attack on legal immigration pathways.
“Going after people who have existing statuses like TPS holders and seeking to strip them of their protections so that they can increase the numbers of people that they are able to deport,” Parisio said.
There are more than 700 TPS holders in Maine, according to data from the Congressional Research Service.
In a separate decision also issued Thursday, the court cleared the way for the Trump administration to block asylum seekers at ports of entry.
Parisio said that upends decades of U.S. asylum policy, built on a post-World War II promise not to return people to countries where their lives or freedoms were at risk.
“And this ruling absolutely guts and undermines those values and those promises that the United States made, and is a true betrayal of people that are seeking humanitarian protection,” Parisio said.
The Maine Immigrants Rights Coalition also condemned both rulings, saying in a written statement Thursday that the decisions “will affect people here in Maine who are working, raising families, attending school, contributing to local economies, and helping sustain the communities we all depend on.”
The Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling soon in the most high-profile immigration case this session: Trump’s efforts to end birthright citizenship.
This story appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.