How the Supreme Court Made Legal Immigrants Vulnerable to Deportation

The court decisions are an abrupt turnaround for a population that entered the country legally and shared detailed information about their whereabouts with the government.

The New York Times
May 31, 2025Updated 3:09 p.m. ET

The government knows their names.

Their fingerprints have been scanned into government computers. The Department of Homeland Security knows where most of them live, because the immigrants in question — more than 500,000 of them — reside in the United States legally.

But two new Supreme Court decisions have left them open to deportation, an abrupt turn for a population that has been able to remain in the country by using legal pathways for people facing war and political turmoil at home.

Key details from the article “How the Supreme Court Made Legal Immigrants Vulnerable to Deportation”

Affected Population
Over 500,000 legal immigrants, primarily from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela (C.H.N.V.)

Legal Programs Targeted
- Humanitarian Parole - Temporary Protected Status (TPS)

Supreme Court Action
- Two emergency decisions without full opinions - Revoked legal protections for hundreds of thousands

Legal Consequences
Immigrants went from “lawfully present” to “deportable” overnight

Reason for Targeting
Trump administration claims programs are being abused and undermining public safety

Government Knowledge of Immigrants
The government has biometrics, addresses, sponsor names due to previous compliance with legal immigration pathways

Immediate Deportation Risk
Many can now be subject to expedited removal if in the U.S. less than 2 years — skipping immigration court entirely

ICE Tactics
- Arrests at immigration courts - Increased focus on people with traceable government records

Administration’s Justification
Expedited removal prevents further burden on the immigration court system

Expert Reactions
- Jason Houser (former ICE official): “Seismic shift” in deportation strategy - Karen Tumlin (Justice Action Center): “Chaotic and unnecessary”

Advocacy Group Action
Justice Action Center has filed legal challenges against the rulings

Future Implications
- Could embolden more aggressive deportation policies - Delays and backlogs likely in cases that go to immigration court

Public Messaging
Trump officials framing it as a “return to common-sense policies” and “America First” strategy

Critics’ Perspective
Decisions seen as punitive and unethical, especially for people who complied fully with U.S. immigration laws

Underlying Theme
A shift from protection-based immigration to enforcement-driven policy, impacting people who came legally and in good faith


Jason Houser described the Supreme Court decisions as a “seismic shift” in how many legal immigrants can now be targeted for deportation.

Eligibility for Expedited Removal
Immigrants who have been in the U.S. for less than two years may now be deported using expedited removal, bypassing immigration courts.

Context of Supreme Court Rulings
Rulings come amid White House frustration over the slow pace of deportations.

Enforcement Challenges
ICE struggles with: - Lack of resources and detention capacity - Difficulty locating individuals who have moved or live “under the radar”

ICE’s New Measures
- Arrests at immigration courts during hearings - Marks a shift from previous practices avoiding court-related detentions

Escalation in Enforcement
Targeting legally entered immigrants for deportation marks a significant escalation in enforcement tactics.
George Fishman (Trump-era attorney)
Noted many immigrants will qualify for expedited removal, while others will enter an immigration court system plagued by delays.

Trump Admin’s Intentions
Expressed intent to maximize use of expedited removal, especially for those whose legal protections were recently revoked.

Public Register Notice (March 2025)
Claimed humanitarian parole hampered DHS’s ability to deport quickly; expedited removal was cited as a solution to court backlog.

Expedited Removal Expansion
Previously for border apprehensions only, now expanded to include anyone in the U.S. for under 2 years.

Andrea Flores (Biden-era official)
Called the decision “callous”, saying it penalizes immigrants (especially from CHNV countries) for complying with U.S. immigration laws.

Humanitarian Impact
Likely to affect Venezuelans, Nicaraguans, Haitians, and Cubans — returning some to potentially dangerous conditions in their home countries.



“Thousands of people — especially Haitians, Cubans and Venezuelans — instantly shift from ‘lawfully present’ to ‘deportable,’” said Jason Houser, a former official with Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the Biden administration.

Now, with their protections revoked while legal challenges move through lower courts, many immigrants have found themselves in a vulnerable position. Because so many of them have shared detailed information with the government, including addresses, biometrics and the names of their sponsors, they could be easy to track down at a moment when the Trump administration is looking for ways to deport people quickly.

Whether and how aggressively the administration might move to begin rounding up people whose legal protections have been revoked remains unclear, though officials signaled several months ago that they feel they have the authority to do so.

“It’s chaotic and unnecessary, and we’re already receiving panicked calls and emails, and the crescendo will only grow,” said Karen Tumlin, founder and director of Justice Action Center, an immigrant advocacy group that has challenged last week’s rulings in court.

“The Supreme Court has effectively greenlit deportation orders for an estimated half a million people, the largest such de-legalization in the modern era,” she said.

The Supreme Court acted in both cases on emergency applications by the Trump administration, which has pushed for more arrests and deportations, even for people who are in the United States legally. The administration argues that some immigration programs are being abused and allow people into the country who would otherwise be turned away.


The court gutted two such programs in the last couple of weeks, humanitarian parole and Temporary Protected Status, which together have shielded more than a half-million people from deportation. The decisions were unsigned and gave no reasoning, which is typical of emergency proceedings.

“Ending the C.H.N.V. parole programs, as well as the paroles of those who exploited it, will be a necessary return to common-sense policies, a return to public safety, and a return to America First,” said Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Homeland Security Department. She was using an abbreviation for Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, the countries in the humanitarian parole program targeted by the Trump administration.

Mr. Houser said the court decisions amount to “a seismic shift” in the number of people the Trump administration can target for deportation. Some immigrants affected by the rulings have been in the country less than two years, which means they could be deported using an expedited system that sidesteps the normal immigration court process.

The decisions come as top White House officials have been publicly complaining about the pace of deportations. The problems are due in part to the logistical constraints of immigration enforcement, including the lack of resources and capacity to detain people.
Image

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers at the Department of Homeland Security field office in Nashville, Tenn., this month. White House officials have been anxious to ramp up the pace of deportations.


But there is another factor that often hamstrings ICE officers: the difficulty of finding their targets. Many immigrants live under the radar or have moved from their last known address long ago.

That’s why ICE is taking aggressive new measures, including detaining people at immigration courts when they show up for hearings. The tactic is a significant break from past practice, when immigration officials largely steered clear of courthouse arrests out of concern that they would deter people from complying with orders.

Tracking down people who entered the country legally is yet another escalation.
George Fishman, a former homeland security attorney in the first Trump administration, noted that while many of the immigrants could qualify for expedited removal, others would end up in an immigration court system that is plagued by delays.

For those who find themselves in court, “it’s not going to mean the immediate removal of anybody,” he said.
But Trump administration officials have signaled that they intend to use expedited removal whenever they can. In a public register notice in March announcing that it would end the humanitarian parole program, the Trump administration said it was hampering D.H.S.’s ability to deport people quickly.

Expedited removal typically is used on people who are picked up at the border, as a way to quickly turn them back without court proceedings. But Mr. Trump expanded it significantly so that ICE agents can use the process for anyone who has been in the United States less than two years.

In its March notice, the administration said expedited removal prevents “further straining of the overburdened immigration court system.”

Andrea Flores, who was a Biden-administration immigration official, said the notice was not subtle.
“Their own justification for terminating this legal status now is to be able to put them in expedited removal, since the majority arrived less than two years ago,” she said. “The Supreme Court’s decision is callous, and will embolden this administration to go further in singling out Venezuelans, Nicaraguans, Haitians and Cubans, penalizing them for complying with our immigration laws a

===========================
An immigration raid at a San Diego restaurant leads to a chaotic scene
Alina Selyukh • 9h

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents execute a criminal search warrant on Friday, at the Buona Forchetta Italian restaurant in San Diego.

A chaotic scene from a federal immigration raid on a popular San Diego restaurant is drawing new attention to government tactics in the push to fulfill President Trump's promise to deport millions in a historic crackdown.
Video shared on social media and local news shows armed and masked agents in full tactical gear swarming the area near a popular Italian restaurant called Buona Forchetta late Friday afternoon.

A crowd of people gathers, filming and yelling in protest, surrounding cars and detention vans. Then, a momentary explosion of what appears to be a flash-bang grenade sends smoke floating through the street.
A special agent with the Department of Homeland Security told NPR member station KPBS that officials were "executing a criminal search warrant" during a workplace raid.

Some witnesses in news reports say agents at first handcuffed the entire restaurant crew as they asked for identification. Several workers were ultimately detained, though witness accounts differ on how many.

ICE agents used what appeared to be a smoke device to disperse the crowd near Buona Forchetta on Friday.

DHS' Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, did not immediately respond to NPR's email inquiry Saturday. Neither did the restaurant.

One employee cried while speaking with KPBS on Friday as she described how federal agents handcuffed her coworkers in the restaurant, just before it was scheduled to open.

The crowd of locals at one point blocked an unmarked DHS vehicle from leaving a nearby intersection; they shouted profanities and called agents fascists. Agents sounded sirens, then deployed what KPBS described as a smoke device to disperse the crowd.

The San Diego Police Department told NPR in a statement that it was asked to assist at the scene of Friday's workplace raid, but that federal agents had left the area prior to their arrival, and that SDPD officers "did not ultimately provide any assistance or take enforcement action."