They’re at it again. Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision Thursday to support President Donald Trump in terminating temporary protected status (TPS) for a host of foreign nationals, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is once again raising the hue and cry. Here’s what USCCB Migration Committee chairman Bishop Brendan J. Cahill had to say:
Revoking the legal status of hundreds of thousands of people residing in our country creates a moral crisis when returning to their country of origin is not a safe or reasonable option. If we are truly to affirm the God-given dignity of every human person, we as a nation cannot turn a blind eye to such an injustice and the impossible choices it will create for families and communities.
First of all, as the name suggests, TPS is not exactly the same thing as legal status, properly understood. Instead, TPS is intended to be temporary, which is exactly what the Supreme Court and the Trump administration agreed on. Second of all, returning to Haiti is in no way an unsafe or unreasonable option for Haitian nationals.
Deporting those who have no right to be in the country to their home countries … is not an affront to the dignity of the foreigners.
Haiti was first granted TPS in 2010, following a major earthquake in January of that year. The designation has been repeatedly renewed for more than 15 years; first, it was renewed due to slow recovery from the earthquake, then due to a cholera epidemic, then due to hurricanes, and, under former president Joe Biden, due to a combination of factors like poverty, political instability, and the impacts of COVID-19. The only time anyone has tried to terminate TPS for Haiti was under both the first and second Trump administrations, when the decision was challenged in court.
Syria was first designated for TPS in 2012, due to armed conflict in Syria and the violent suppression of rebellion by then-president Bashar al-Assad and his regime. Al-Assad and his regime were overthrown in 2024 and al-Assad fled the country.
In the cases of both Haiti and Syria — as in the cases of countless other countries designated for TPS — the de jure “temporary” relief afforded to foreign nationals hailing from those places has de facto become permanent, long after conditions returned to the status quo and the cause for offering temporary relief came to an end. Cahill and his brother bishops conveniently ignore this fact. While the bishops say that “we as a nation cannot turn a blind eye to such an injustice” as returning foreign nationals to their home countries, in a manner that is both safe and humane, the USCCB has been happy to “turn a blind eye” to the horrors wrought upon American citizens by these “temporary” visitors who have long overstayed their welcome.
Continue reading at the American Spectator