DHS offers TPS holders $2,100, plane ticket to self-deport following Supreme Court ruling

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is offering Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders approximately $2,100 and a free plane ticket to help them re-establish in their home countries following the Supreme Court decision allowing the Trump administration to end TPS protections for Haitians and Syrian nationals.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union,” where he outlined the administration’s plans to deport the migrants who are here on protected status.

“We’ll help you get back to your country. We’ll actually give you a plane ticket plus roughly $2,100 to help you reestablish when you get there. But temporary status, according to the courts and in the name itself, is not permanent status,” Mullin said.

Under temporary protected status, migrants are permitted to reside and work in the US for a temporary period when conditions in their home countries make it unsafe to return. The designation is typically granted in response to ongoing armed conflicts, environmental disasters, or other extraordinary and temporary conditions.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration may move forward with ending TPS protections for Haitian and Syrian migrants. The decision clears the way for the administration to terminate the legal protections that have allowed hundreds of thousands of migrants from those countries to remain in the United States.

Following the ruling, several Democratic lawmakers renewed calls for TPS recipients to receive a permanent pathway to US citizenship. They also criticizied the administration’s decision as being racially motivated. 

In the Court’s opinion, however, Justice Samuel Alito rejected that argument.

“But, ironically, one of respondents’ other arguments undermines the equal protection claim by offering a strong, race-neutral explanation for Haiti’s termination: namely, that the current administration, which has terminated every TPS designation that has come up for renewal, simply opposes the TPS program, at least as it has been implemented in the past. For these reasons, the District Courts erred in granting interim relief," Alito wrote.

Approximately 350,000 Haitian and 6,100 Syrian nationals currently reside in the United States under temporary protected status. The Supreme Court decision allows the administration to proceed with ending those protections.

Meanwhile, New York City socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani has vowed not to accept the court’s ruling, saying he will not enforce the decision in the nation’s largest city.