US Supreme Court hands Trump administration sweeping powers to block asylum seekers and deport migrants

The US Supreme Court on Friday issued a sweeping set of rulings that hand the Trump administration broad new powers to dismantle humanitarian protections for migrants, block asylum seekers at the southern border, and deport lawful permanent residents, a move immediately condemned by human-rights advocates and foreign governments. In a trio of decisions released just before the weekend, the court sided with the administration on ending Temporary Protected Status for Haitians and Syrians, authorised sweeping border restrictions, and upheld sweeping deportation discretion over green-card holders, effectively green-lighting a major expansion of immigration enforcement.

The rulings arrived as three International Criminal Court judges from Canada, Uganda and Benin filed a lawsuit against the US government in Washington, DC, challenging sanctions imposed after the ICC opened investigations into alleged war crimes in Israel and the Palestinian territories. The judges argue the measures unlawfully target them for carrying out judicial duties, escalating a transatlantic legal confrontation that has drawn warnings from Washington against travel to both countries. The US State Department has already advised citizens to avoid the territories under review by the ICC, signalling deepening diplomatic friction over accountability for powerful states.

Legal scholars and former officials said the Supreme Court’s immigration decisions mark a decisive shift toward executive primacy in border and deportation policy, removing key judicial and administrative constraints that had limited the administration’s ability to reshape immigration enforcement. The court’s rulings allow the Department of Homeland Security to terminate TPS for nearly 50,000 Haitians and 7,000 Syrians who have lived and worked in the US for years, while simultaneously authorising the immediate blocking of asylum seekers at ports of entry and the expedited removal of green-card holders deemed a security risk. Immigration lawyers warned that the combined effect could lead to mass deportations and family separations within weeks.

The ICC judges’ lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, seeks declaratory and injunctive relief against the sanctions, arguing that the measures violate international law and the 1998 Rome Statute that established the court. The Biden administration has defended the sanctions as necessary to protect US sovereignty and Israeli officials from what it calls politically motivated prosecutions. The clash underscores a widening rift between Washington and international judicial bodies over accountability for powerful states, with the Supreme Court’s immigration rulings amplifying perceptions that the US is insulating itself and its allies from legal scrutiny.