The word “temporary” apparently means something different to certain politicians in Washington. That debate is front and center this week following the Supreme Court’s ruling on Temporary Protected Status for Haitian migrants.
TPS is the provision in immigration law that gives a sitting president authority to offer refuge to foreign nationals while their home country recovers from natural disaster or political upheaval. When a massive earthquake struck Haiti in 2010, President Obama used that authority to allow hundreds of thousands of Haitians into the United States under TPS. The initial grant was intended to last no more than 18 months.
That was 16 years ago. Many of those Haitians are still here.
According to a report, critics argue that what was sold as a temporary measure quietly became a de facto permanent arrangement, something the law never actually authorized.
President Trump, who ran on aggressive immigration enforcement and won, took the position that if Obama had the authority to grant TPS to Haitians, then he had the equal authority to revoke it. Opponents disagreed and went court shopping, eventually securing a block on the revocation.
Then the Supreme Court stepped in. The ruling was straightforward: presidents can grant TPS, and presidents can revoke it. The justices found no legal barrier to Trump ending the status, regardless of the political controversy surrounding the decision.
That should have settled things. It did not.
Democrats have been vocal in their opposition, which surprised no one. But some familiar voices from the Republican side have also resurfaced to add their criticism.
Chief among them is John Kasich, the former Ohio governor and longtime thorn in the side of conservative Republicans. Kasich released a video this week taking aim at the Trump administration’s decision. Rather than engage with the legal question or acknowledge the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the law, Kasich focused his comments on defending the Haitian migrants. He is now calling on Congress to step in and override what is widely considered a core presidential foreign policy function.
Kasich, who built a reputation as a persistent critic of Trump during his time in the spotlight, had largely faded from public view before this week’s remarks.
The legal question, however, does appear to be settled. The Supreme Court’s ruling was definitive, and the court’s composition leaves little ambiguity about where the highest authority in the land stands on the matter.
Whether Congress takes up Kasich’s call remains to be seen. But for now, the court has spoken clearly. TPS was designed to be temporary, the president has the authority to enforce that, and 16 years is well beyond any reasonable definition of the word.