Supreme Court: Migrants Temporarily in US Ineligible for Permanent Residency | Voice of America

The US Supreme Court unanimously ruled Monday that 400,000 immigrants from 12 countries living in the United States for humanitarian reasons are not eligible for permanent residency.

Judge Elena Kagan, who wrote for the court, said US immigration law prevents migrants who have entered the country illegally from obtaining permanent residency or “green cards” even though they have temporary protection status.

FILE – Assistant Judge Elena Kagan.

The designation TPS applies to migrants who came to the US to escape war or natural disasters in their home countries. It protects them from deportation and they can legally work in the US but now with the Supreme Court ruling they cannot apply for permanent residence.

The verdict came in a case involving a married couple from El Salvador, Jose Sanchez and Sonia Gonzales, who have lived in the United States and New Jersey since the late 1990s. The decision revolved around the question of whether people who entered the US illegally but received humanitarian protection would ever be “accepted” into the country.

Although a district court ruled in favor of the couple, an appeals court overturned the decision. It stated that TPS was not an “approval” in the United States

The Supreme Court agreed that the two were not legally admitted.

“The TPS program gives foreigners non-immigrant status but does not allow them,” Kagan wrote. “The award of TPS does not make illegal beginners … eligible” for a green card.

The House of Representatives passed a law allowing permanent residency for migrants using the TPS program, but the fate of the measure is uncertain in the Senate.

In addition to El Salvador, migrants with TPS status from 11 other countries are currently protected from deportation. These countries include Haiti, Honduras, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen.