Trump administration asks US Supreme Court to end protections for Syrian immigrants

US President Donald Trump’s administration asked the Supreme Court to intervene in its effort to strip deportation protections from about 6,000 Syrians living in the United States.

The Justice Department in an emergency request asks the Supreme Court to lift a judge’s November decision that blocked the administration’s move to end Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, for Syrians while litigation challenging the move continues.

It is the third time the administration has turned to the Supreme Court related to its efforts to terminate these protections for migrants. The court sided with the administration on both previous occasions, involving the revocation of TPS for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans.

TPS is a humanitarian designation under US law for migrants from countries stricken by war, natural disaster or other catastrophes, shielding people given this status from deportation and allowing them to work in the United States.

Trump’s Department of Homeland Security has moved to terminate TPS for 12 countries, including Syria. Similar lawsuits have led to court rulings that are currently blocking the end of TPS for people from nations including Ethiopia, South Sudan, Haiti, Syria and Myanmar.