WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, in a further attack on lawful immigration pathways, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) issued two reckless rulings: Mullin v. Al Otro Lado, which will make it easier to turn away people fleeing persecution and seeking asylum, and Mullin vs. Doe, which greenlights the Trump administration’s termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Syrians and Haitians living in the United States. These decisions will inflict mass cruelty on vulnerable asylum seekers and longstanding community members with TPS, with the potential to strip protections from more than 1.3 million individuals with temporary protected status and subject them to potential family separation, inhumane detention, and wrongful deportation.
The National Partnership for New Americans (NPNA) firmly rejects these two rulings and calls for urgent, humane pathways to citizenship. Congress must pursue ethical alternatives to the mass undocumenting of people, workers, families, and those fleeing persecution and violence. Today’s outcome shows the dangers of partisan majority decisions that have devastating consequences. This ruling will reshape and strip away crucial, legally sound humanitarian protections established under the law for decades.
Said Nicole Melaku, NPNA executive director, “It is evident across communities and in countless sectors of our economy just how embedded TPS-holders and asylum-seekers are. These community members are people who have fled persecution, humanitarian crises, conflicts, and climate disasters and come to this nation with the hope of safety. Today, the supreme law of the land has stripped them of this baseline human right. Today, SCOTUS has once again reinforced injustice by continuing a pattern of dismantling immigrant rights and our asylum system. In this time of cruel policy-making and judicial rulings, the National Partnership for New Americans is committed to supporting the organizations and people who now must face America’s broken promise of safety and refuge.”
Said Fatima Saidi, We Are All America director, “I am absolutely heartbroken and angry over this decision. As an asylee who knows exactly what it means to flee for your life, seeing the Supreme Court greenlight a policy that blocks vulnerable people from seeking safety is a profound betrayal. This decision is a shameful, anti-humanitarian ruling that will undeniably cost lives. As our communities and advocates process this profound loss, we will not stop fighting for the dignity of every person seeking refuge.”
Said Tessa Petit, Executive Director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition (FLIC), “Today’s SCOTUS decision is proof that we must not stop fighting for justice. This decision completely undermines the rule of law, and greenlights DHS to abuse its power and the vulnerable immigrant communities depending on its decisions. As people lose their legal status, hundreds of thousands of families will suffer collateral damage, impacting entire communities and economies. Families will be separated. People will die. Breadwinners and parents will end up in detention. Instead of allowing the administration to un-document longstanding, essential community members, Congress must create humane, workable pathways to citizenship that protect families and people fleeing persecution.”
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The National Partnership for New Americans (NPNA) is a multi-ethnic, multiracial coalition of over 76 of the nation’s largest immigrant and refugee rights organizations with reach across over 40 states. Together with our members, we advance immigrant and refugee equity and inclusion, build and expand immigration legal services and integration programming capacity, and drive campaigns that strengthen democracy through increased civic participation. See our website for more information at partnershipfornewamericans.org.