Dear {name}:

Two years ago, I wrote an opinion piece titled, Springfield is Emblematic of America’s Immigration Death Spiral highlighting the demographic shock and economic strain hordes of Haitian migrants allowed into the country under Temporary Protective Status (TPS) were placing on that small Ohio city. On Thursday, June 25^th, the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) ruled in favor of the Trump administration and gave him the green light to end TPS for Haiti, Syria and frankly all countries if he chooses to do so. The ruling will help restore some equilibrium to a program that has become unrecognizable from its original intent. Temporary is just that – TEMPORARY. Those using it to escape some natural or manmade disaster in their home country were never supposed to remain in our country permanently. And now it is time for the Haitians, the vast majority who arrived under the Biden administration, to return.

With the passing of the Immigration Act of 1990, Congress delegated to the Executive Branch the authority to grant TPS status to any nation. The argument for this executive authority is that natural disasters and civil conflicts develop fast and often require a rapid response. However, looking back over the past thirty-five years, it appears that TPS is being used more for foreign policy signaling and domestic policy game playing.

Perhaps, it is time to narrow the president’s authority or to revoke it and allow Congress to deliberate over which nations should be allowed TPS and when TPS needs to be cancelled. Even if we welcome President Trump's actions on immigration, the next administration could see things very differently.

Either late next week or in early July, SCOTUS will end its current term and go on recess until its next term begins in October. The court has heard some interesting immigration-related cases and has several major cases left to decide that include birthright citizenship and mail-in ballots. Fingers crossed we will have more to celebrate by the 4^th of July than flybys and fireworks displays.

Onward,

Kevin Lynn

Executive Director, Institute for Sound Public Policy

Founder, U.S. Tech Workers

We held two training sessions last week. In one of the sessions we provided a broad range of Hill staffers, NGO employees and administration officials substantiative updates on the labor market effects of employment visa programs and how to work directly with supporting data.

In the other session I gave an overview of the H-1B visa program and STEM OPT program to the fellows at American Moment. The mission of American Moment is to host events, produce original content, and build networks to create personnel who will put America first in government, business and public policy organizations. I am proud to say that I have been presenting lectures on immigration topics to the fellows at American Moment for the past five years.