Supreme Court sides with Trump administration in green card holders case

Lindsay Whitehurst
Associated Press
Tue, 23 Jun 2026 19:42 UTC

The Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration Tuesday in an immigration case dealing with the government's power over green card holders accused of crimes.

The 6-3 decision centers on an immigration officers' 2012 decision to put lawful permanent resident Muk Choi Lau on immigration parole when he returned from a short trip to China because he had been accused of a counterfeiting crime.

Lau argued that the officer overstepped their authority, and the decision wrongly allowed the Department of Homeland Security under then-President Barack Obama an easier path to removal after he pleaded guilty to selling counterfeit clothes in New Jersey.

The high court disagreed. "Border officers did not have the burden to establish by clear and convincing evidence that Lau had committed a crime involving moral turpitude," Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the opinion.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, writing that the decision to put Lau on immigration parole effectively sentenced him to "immigration limbo" before he'd been convicted of any crime.

"I worry that the Court has now handed the Government a massive blank check," she wrote in the dissent joined by her two liberal colleagues.

The liberal group Alliance for Justice echoed that concern, saying the ruling could provide an expanded path for revoking green cards.

But Advancing American Freedom, a group founded by former Republican Vice President Mike Pence, called it an important case to allow the removal of people who "abuse the privilege of being granted lawful permanent resident status."

The decision comes as the high court considers a series of immigration-related issues against the backdrop of President Donald Trump's sweeping immigration crackdown, though this case started before Trump took office.

© Associated Press

Updated June 25, 2026 • Majority opinion writers are in boldface type • Reporting by Mark Sherman and Lindsay Whitehurst

His administration argued that suspicion of a crime is enough to put a lawful permanent resident, also known as a green-card holder, on immigration parole. Federal attorneys urged the court to take an expansive view of executive authority over immigration.

The court is also considering cases over Trump's push to end birthright citizenship, potentially revive a restrictive asylum policy and end temporary legal protections for migrants fleeing war and natural disasters in their homelands.

Comment: Epoch Times adds:

Justice Samuel Alito wrote the majority opinion, which said the sole constitutional argument in the case would likely fail.

"Citing statements made by President Trump and former Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, one set of respondents advances an equal protection claim that Haiti's TPS [Temporary Protected Status] designation was terminated because of the racial makeup of that country's population," Alito wrote.

"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."

During oral argument in April, the Justice Department argued that lower court judges had exceeded their authority in blocking DHS's decisions to terminate protected status for those groups.

Some of the arguments focused on a portion of the Immigration and Nationality Act that says,

"There is no judicial review of any determination of the [DHS Secretary] with respect to the designation, or termination or extension of a designation, of a foreign state under this subsection."

The decision is expected to impact thousands of Haitians and Syrians who received temporary protected status.

The Haitians received 'temporary protected status' fifteen years ago.

Trump admin ends temporary protected status for Haitian migrants currently in the US