Latest news with #deportation


New York Times
an hour ago
- General
- New York Times
Blow to Biden-era Program Plunges Migrants Into Further Uncertainty
For thousands of migrants from some of the world's most unstable countries, the last several months in United States have felt like a life-or-death legal roller coaster. And after a Supreme Court ruling on Friday in favor of a key piece of the Trump administration's deportation effort, hundreds of thousands of migrants found themselves plunged once again into a well of uncertainty. They face the prospect that after being granted temporary permission to live in the United States, they will now be abruptly expelled and perhaps sent back to their perilous homelands. 'One court said one thing, another court said another, and that just leaves us all very confused and worried,' said Frantzdy Jerome, a Haitian who lives with his partner and their toddler in Ohio. Immigration lawyers reported that they had been fielding calls from families asking whether they should continue to go to work or school. Their clients, they say, were given permission to live and work temporarily in the United States. Now, with that permission revoked while legal challenges work their way through lower courts, many immigrants fear that any encounter with the police or other government agencies could lead to deportation, according to lawyers and community leaders. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.


Malay Mail
2 hours ago
- General
- Malay Mail
Trump wins Supreme Court ruling to strip legal protections from 500,000 migrants, exposing them to deportation
WASHINGTON, May 31— The US Supreme Court handed President Donald Trump a major victory yesterday in his immigration crackdown, giving his administration the green light to revoke the legal status of half a million migrants from four Caribbean and Latin American countries. The decision puts 532,000 people who came from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to the United States under a two-year humanitarian 'parole' programme launched by former president Joe Biden at risk of deportation. And it marked the second time the highest US court has sided with Trump in his aggressive push to deliver on his election pledge to deport millions of non-citizens, through a series of policy moves that have prompted a flurry of lawsuits. On Calle Ocho, a historic street in Miami's Little Havana neighbourhood, Johnny Cardona, 63, was saddened by the Supreme Court's decision. 'Since I'm American, it's not going to affect me, but I know it's going to affect many friendships, many families, many people I know,' Cardona told AFP. The ruling sparked a scathing dissent from two justices in the liberal minority who said the six conservatives on the bench had 'plainly botched' the decision and undervalued the 'devastating consequences' to those potentially affected. The revoked programme had allowed entry into the United States for two years for up to 30,000 migrants a month from the four countries, all of which have dismal human rights records. But as Trump takes a hard line on immigration, his administration moved to overturn those protections, winning a ruling from the Supreme Court earlier this month that allowed officials to begin deporting around 350,000 Venezuelans. The latest case resulted from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem cancelling an 18-month extension of the temporary protected status of the migrants, citing in particular the 'authoritarian' nature of Nicolas Maduro's government in Venezuela. The department gave them 30 days to leave the country unless they had legal protection under another programme. 'Needless human suffering' 'The court has plainly botched this assessment today,' Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor wrote in their dissent. The justices said the migrants face being wrenched from family and returning to potential danger in their native countries — or opting to stay and risking imminent removal. 'At a minimum, granting the stay would facilitate needless human suffering before the courts have reached a final judgment regarding the legal arguments at issue, while denying the government's application would not have anything close to that kind of practical impact,' Jackson said. None of the other justices gave reasons for their decision, and the court was not required to make the vote public. 'The ultimate goal of this policy is to leave these people without legal status, to make them subjects of deportation,' said Adelys Ferro, co-founder and executive director of the Venezuelan American Caucus, an advocacy group. The district court that barred the administration from revoking the migrants' status had argued that it was unlawfully applying a fast-track deportation procedure aimed at illegal immigrants to non-citizens protected by government programmes. At the Supreme Court, Justice Department lawyers said the 'district court has nullified one of the administration's most consequential immigration policy decisions' by issuing the stay. The high court's decision means the Trump administration can go ahead with its policy change, even as the litigation on the merits plays out in lower courts. Trump campaigned for the White House on a pledge to deport millions of undocumented migrants, claiming there was an ongoing 'invasion' of the United States by hordes of foreign criminals. But his programme of mass deportations has been thwarted or restricted by numerous court rulings, including from the Supreme Court and notably on the grounds that those targeted should be able to assert their due process rights. The Trump administration systematically accuses judges who oppose his immigration decisions of plundering his presidential national security powers. — AFP


Arab News
4 hours ago
- General
- Arab News
Homeland Security chief said an immigrant threatened to kill Trump. The story quickly fell apart
A claim by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that an immigrant threatened the life of President Donald Trump has begun to unravel. Noem announced an arrest of a 54-year-old man who was living in the US illegally, saying he had written a letter threatening to kill Trump and would then return to Mexico. The story received a flood of media attention and was highlighted by the White House and Trump's allies. But investigators actually believe the man may have been framed so that he would get arrested and be deported from the US before he got a chance to testify in a trial as a victim of assault, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. The person could not publicly discuss details of the investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity. Law enforcement officials believe the man, Ramon Morales Reyes, never wrote a letter that Noem and her department shared with a message written in light blue ink expressing anger over Trump's deportations and threatening to shoot him in the head with a rifle at a rally. Noem also shared the letter on X along with a photo of Morales Reyes, and the White House also shared it on its social media accounts. The letter was mailed to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office along with the FBI and other agencies, the person said. As part of the investigation, officials had contacted Morales Reyes and asked for a handwriting sample and concluded his handwriting and the threatening letter didn't match and that the threat was not credible, the person said. It's not clear why Homeland Security officials still decided to send a release making that claim. In an emailed statement asking for information about the letter and the new information about Morales Reyes, the Department of Homeland Security said 'the investigation into the threat is ongoing. Over the course of the investigation, this individual was determined to be in the country illegally and that he had a criminal record. He will remain in custody.' His attorneys said he was not facing current charges and they did not have any information about convictions in his record. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's records show Morales Reyes is being held at a county jail in Juneau, Wisconsin, northwest of Milwaukee. The Milwaukee-based immigrant rights group Voces de la Frontera, which is advocating for his release, said he was arrested May 21. Attorney Cain Oulahan, who was hired to fight against his deportation, said he has a hearing in a Chicago immigration court next week and is hoping he is released on bond. Morales Reyes had been a victim in a case of another man who is awaiting trial on assault charges in Wisconsin, the person familiar with the matter said. The trial is scheduled for July. Morales Reyes works as a dishwasher in Milwaukee, where he lives with his wife and three children. He had recently applied for a U visa, which is carved out for people in the country illegally who become victims of serious crimes, said attorney Kime Abduli, who filed that application. The Milwaukee Police Department said it is investigating an identity theft and victim intimidation incident related to this matter and the county district attorney's office said the investigation was ongoing. Milwaukee police said no one has been criminally charged at this time. Abduli, Morales Reyes' attorney, says he could not have written the letter, saying he did not receive formal education and can't write in Spanish and doesn't know how to speak English. She said it was not clear whether he was arrested because of the letters. 'There is really no way that it could be even remotely true,' Abduli said. 'We're asking for a clarification and a correction from DHS to clear Ramon's name of anything having to do with this.'


Arab News
5 hours ago
- General
- Arab News
US top court lets Trump revoke legal status for 500,000 migrants
WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court handed President Donald Trump a major victory Friday in his immigration crackdown, giving his administration the green light to revoke the legal status of half a million migrants from four Caribbean and Latin American countries. The decision puts 532,000 people who came from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to the United States under a two-year humanitarian 'parole' program launched by former president Joe Biden at risk of deportation. And it marked the second time the highest US court has sided with Trump in his aggressive push to deliver on his election pledge to deport millions of non-citizens, through a series of policy announcements that have prompted a flurry of lawsuits. But the opinion sparked a scathing dissent from two justices in the liberal minority who said the six conservatives on the bench had 'plainly botched' their ruling and undervalued the 'devastating consequences' to those potentially affected. The revoked program had allowed entry into the United States for two years for up to 30,000 migrants a month from the four countries, all of which have dismal human rights records. But as Trump takes a hard line on immigration, his administration moved to overturn those protections, winning a ruling from the Supreme Court earlier this month that allowed officials to begin deporting some 350,000 Venezuelans. The latest case resulted from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem canceling an 18-month extension of the temporary protected status of the migrants, citing in particular the 'authoritarian' nature of Nicolas Maduro's government in Venezuela. The department gave them 30 days to leave the country unless they had legal protection under another program. 'The court has plainly botched this assessment today,' Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor wrote in their dissent. The justices said the migrants face being wrenched from family and returning to potential danger in their native countries — or opting to stay and risking imminent removal. 'At a minimum, granting the stay would facilitate needless human suffering before the courts have reached a final judgment regarding the legal arguments at issue, while denying the government's application would not have anything close to that kind of practical impact,' Jackson said. None of the other justices gave reasons for their decision, and the court was not required to make the vote public. The district court that barred the administration from revoking the migrants' status had argued that it was unlawfully applying a fast-track deportation procedure aimed at illegal immigrants to non-citizens protected by government programs. At the Supreme Court, Justice Department lawyers said the 'district court has nullified one of the administration's most consequential immigration policy decisions' by issuing the stay. The high court's decision means the Trump administration can go ahead with its policy change, even as the litigation on the merits plays out in lower courts. Trump campaigned for the White House on a pledge to deport millions of undocumented migrants, evoking an 'invasion' of the United States by hordes of foreign criminals. Among other measures, he invoked an obscure wartime law to fly more than 200 alleged Venezuelan gang members to a prison in El Salvador. But his program of mass deportations has been thwarted or restricted by numerous court rulings, including from the Supreme Court and notably on the grounds that those targeted should be able to assert their due process rights. And the administration has been berated over its efforts to restrict immigration from poor countries with human rights concerns like Afghanistan and Haiti, while accepting white South African refugees amid baseless claims that they face 'genocide.' The Trump administration systematically accuses judges who oppose his immigration decisions of plundering his presidential national security powers.


Bloomberg
5 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
SCOTUS Lets Trump End 500k Migrants' Legal Status
Nick Akerman, former Assistant US Attorney & former Watergate prosecutor, discusses a US Supreme Court ruling allowing the Trump Administration to immediately end temporary legal status for up to 500,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela clearing the way for possible deportations. He also talks about the appeals court ruling on President Trump's tariffs and the impact of the case. Nick Akerman speaks with Kailey Leinz and Joe Mathieu on the late edition of Bloomberg's "Balance of Power." (Source: Bloomberg)