Supreme Court gives Trump major wins on two immigration cases

Read more about today’s rulings here.

A view of the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, on June 25.

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority delivered President Donald Trump a pair of significant affirmations of his immigration policy Thursday, paving the way for the administration to effectively remove more than 1 million people from the US and keep many others from entering in the first place.

Conservative Justice Samuel Alito wrote both decisions over scathing dissents from the court’s three liberals.

There was also tension in the courtroom between the justices, as liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor took the symbolic step of reading her dissent from the bench. Alito then retorted publicly, stunning court observers accustomed to decorum from the justices.

Here’s what to know:

Read CNN’s full takeaways here.

FIFA World Cup 2026 - Group C - Morocco v Haiti - Atlanta Stadium, Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. - June 24, 2026 Haiti's Ricardo Ade applauds fans after the match.

Haitian fans emerged in force in downtown Atlanta on Wednesday, donned in red and blue jerseys to watch the Caribbean nation’s last match of this year’s World Cup.

While Haiti didn’t win its match against Morocco, fans were jubilant about being able to cheer on their team, which defied the odds to play in its first World Cup since the 1970s.

But the pending TPS decision weighed heavily on people’s minds, especially given that rights groups and experts have warned that Haiti –– a country where more than 2,300 people have been killed by gang attacks this year and 1.5 million more have been displaced –– is not safe for nationals to go back.

Haitian citizen Jude Exama held a sign outside Atlanta Stadium on Wednesday drawing attention to what’s happening in his home country. Thursday, the former medical student told CNN he doesn’t intend to return.

“I myself have no choice but to stay in the country,” Exama said. “How do you think I can go and live in a country like that… I would rather starve to death hiding from immigration than live in open hell in Haiti.”

Read more about Haiti’s World Cup run and TPS worries.

Republican Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio, who has strongly supported Haitian Temporary Protected Status holders, called Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling “a mistake” that will hurt the state and its economy.

“As a result of today’s ruling, the over 10,000 Haitians who have been living in Ohio (mostly in the Springfield area) legally through TPS will now be here illegally and will be subject to immediate deportation,” DeWine said in a statement. “This also means that while these Haitians were working and contributing to our community and economy yesterday, today it is now illegal to employ them.”

Haitian TPS holders in Springfield, Ohio, became the subject of attacks by President Donald Trump, who accused them in a 2024 presidential debate of eating dogs and cats.

Springfield is “coming back” economically partly because of its Haitian immigrant residents who are working and spending money in the community, DeWine told CNN’s Dana Bash on Inside Politics in February.

On Thursday, DeWine noted that that the federal government advises against traveling to Haiti.

“The situation in Haiti could hardly be much worse. The violent gangs run most of the country. The government barely functions. And, the economy is in shambles,” he said. “But, more importantly, changing the immigration status of these individuals is not in the best interest of the United States nor Ohio.”

As a senator, DeWine voted in 2006 to confirm Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the majority opinion in the case.

Jan Gautam, CEO of IHRMC Hotels & Resorts, will likely have to lay off roughly 20% of his staff at dozens of hotels in Florida in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling allowing the Trump administration to end Temporary Protected Status for Haitians.

“We respect the judicial system,” he told CNN. “We’ll let everyone go, and we’ll suffer and they’ll suffer.”

The Haitian TPS holders work as housekeepers, landscapers, supervisors and in other positions at the hotels. Without them, he would have to keep some rooms closed at times because the hotels wouldn’t be able to prepare them promptly for the next guests. Plus, he’ll have to spend time finding new employees —already a challenging task — and shell out thousands of dollars in training for each of them.

Already, several of his workers who are Haitian TPS holders have quit in recent months because of the uncertainty surrounding their status, he said.

Florida has the largest share by far, but tens of thousands also reside in New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Ohio and other states.

Linda Joseph holds a candle during a vigil at the Little Haiti Cultural Complex on February 3 in North Miami.

Haitians who are losing deportation protections as a result of the Supreme Court decision on Temporary Protected Status should seek any other legal immigration pathways as soon as possible, attorneys said Thursday.

“Do not wait until you are being arrested by (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) to think about this,” said Katie Kersh, managing attorney at Advocates for Basic Legal Equality in Dayton, Ohio. “The immigration system moves very slowly. It’s very difficult to get something done as an emergency at the last minute.”

Permits that had allowed many Haitians to work legally will now end, Kersh told reporters. And in Ohio, she said, driver’s licenses for those who don’t have legal work permits will expire early next month.

Some may have options to remain legally in the country, said Geoffrey Pipoly, one of the attorneys who represented Haitian TPS holders in the case.

“It’s not an all or nothing thing. It’s going to depend on individual facts and circumstances whether they have a right to remain. It’s not a question I can answer in general, it’s going to be case by case,” he said.

But many who’ve been on TPS may not have another pathway.

“I do think the majority of these folks are going to be left with very few, if any, options,” he said.

And the consequences, he said, could be dire for those who are deported.

Advocates say they’re pushing Congress to pass legislation to that would extend TPS for Haitians until the end of the Trump administration.

More than a million people may soon be eligible for deportation in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision on a form of humanitarian relief that’s been extended to certain nationalities and allowed them to live and work in the United States.

The Trump administration had attempted to end the relief known as Temporary Protected Status for 13 out of 17 countries that had been designated under the Biden administration. Multiple federal courts blocked the administration from moving forward with those terminations following lawsuits from immigrant advocates.

The Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration on TPS by essentially ruling that courts have no business deciding the issue in the first place.

Legal challenges against the administration over revoking TPS for multiple countries will likely be dismissed because of the court’s decision, so the administration will be able to proceed with its plans. People who are protected from deportation under designations that the administration has moved to revoke would have those protections stripped, including their work permits.

“It’s certainly very possible now that the Supreme Court has cleared the path for the administration to undertake the mass deportation of this more than 1 million people from these countries,” said Ahilan Arulanantham, who argued the Syrian TPS case before the Supreme Court and is a law professor at UCLA School of Law. “It would be the largest dedocumentization event of people in US history.”

Countries for which the administration has tried to terminate TPS:

CNN newsgathering intern Abigail Roedersheimer runs from the US Supreme Court as opinions are issued on June 25 in Washington, DC.

Technology is now faster than ever. Interns can be faster.

Decision days at the Supreme Court in June bring the traditional “running of the interns.”

In the SCOTUS press room, thick pamphlets are handed to reporters, then to interns waiting in the hallway.

Before a reporter could scan the entire decision and send it over to a correspondent, the intern has already left the courthouse and is running down Maryland Ave NE, headed for the Senate Swamp, where journalists like CNN Chief Legal Affairs Correspondent Paula Reid analyze the paper copies live on air.

The run takes an intern past photographers, other media setups, into a grass field in front of the Capitol and to the swamp – a term for the small area where impromptu press-conferences are held, and one of the few spots on Capitol grounds where tripods can be set up.

It’s all a reminder of how opaque the high court is. No cameras are allowed in the courtroom for arguments or opinions, so journalists are the first to tell the public what the justices have done.

The Supreme Court’s ruling that the Trump administration can end Temporary Protected Status for roughly 350,000 Haitians will hurt many businesses and workers – particularly in the elder care and hospitality industries, two business advocacy organizations said Thursday.

Nursing homes, assisted living facilities and homecare agencies expect they’ll have to replace many employees since a sizable share of them are Haitian TPS holders. That could cause stress and disruptions to care for many elderly Americans.

“Staff and caregivers who support older adults every day — legal employees who in some of our communities represent 8% or more of the entire workforce — can now lose their jobs overnight,” Katie Smith Sloan, CEO of LeadingAge, the national association of nonprofit and mission-driven providers of aging services, said in a statement.

Providers may have to limit nursing home admissions, close units or turn down requests for home care until the vacancies are filled, she continued.

Businesses in many industries will lose employees they rely on, Rebecca Shi, CEO of American Business Immigration Coalition Action, said in a statement.

“Today’s decision is a devastating setback for the hundreds of thousands of TPS holders who have built their lives in communities across America and, importantly, for our economy as we stand to lose long term, vetted and skilled workers in critical sectors from healthcare to hospitality to construction and beyond,” she said.

Bamilia Delcine Olistin, center, helps another fellow Haitian immigrant, right, send a cash remittance to Haiti, after a federal judge issued a temporary stay blocking the Trump administration's attempt to strip Temporary Protected Status for Haitian immigrants, at Bon Samaritain Food Store in Springfield, Ohio, on February 3.

Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling on temporary protected status has catastrophic implications for many Haitians in the US who could now face deportation, and also for the communities where they live, a pastor in Springfield, Ohio, told reporters.

“This is a tragedy for Springfield, Ohio. We’re a city that had been in decline for 50 years. When Haitians arrived, that was the first time we grew in half a century. We went from being the fastest shrinking city in America to the fastest growing. And this undoes all of that progress,” said Pastor Carl Ruby of Central Christian Church.

An estimated 12,000-15,000 Haitians live in Springfield and have bolstered the city’s workforce. Ruby called the court’s ruling a “worst-case scenario” but said churches and others are committed to supporting Haitians there.

“We are a city that loves our neighbors, and I can’t overstate the commitment of the community to stand with Haitians who now are at risk for deportation and are not able to work, effective immediately,” he said. “That’s going to hurt businesses in Springfield. It’s going to lead to economic decline. It’s going to hurt our county. It’s just awful.”

Viles Dorsainvil, executive director of the Haitian Support Center in Springfield, said many are now bracing themselves for life without work permits and driver’s licenses. “That will put us in a very bad situation,” he said.

“I understand that now, being in America is dealing with a system that just don’t want you,” he added.

Community support helps, Dorsainvil said, but won’t stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement from deporting people or separating families.

“I used to know a US where human dignity was valued, justice was valued, but it’s no longer this,” he said.