Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., accused President Donald Trump of a “betrayal” after the Supreme Court handed his administration a pair of immigration wins involving Temporary Protected Status and asylum claims.
The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed the Trump administration to end Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, for Haitian and Syrian migrants, clearing the way for the administration to remove legal protections that have allowed many Haitians to remain and work in the U.S. since Haiti’s 2010 earthquake and many Syrians since the country’s civil war prompted a TPS designation in 2012.
Ocasio-Cortez told Fox News Digital the TPS decision targets the very people Trump supporters were told would not be the focus of his aggressive immigration deportation agenda.
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“I think it’s really sad because these decisions are targeting exactly the kind of people that Republican voters said that they did not want targeted in the Trump administration’s immigration policy,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
She argued the ruling marked “a reversal of President Trump’s promise to only go after, quote unquote, criminals and rapists.”
“This decision to overturn TPS targets nurses, it targets health care workers, it targets domestic workers, cleaners, people who work in restaurants,” she said, calling it “a real betrayal of President Trump’s promise.”
Ocasio-Cortez also argued the ruling would hurt U.S. citizens by raising prices, making it harder to find workers, while also breaking up longstanding communities.
House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., criticized Trump and Republicans over the asylum ruling, saying the president has “time and time again” attacked a process that has been part of U.S. law for decades.
“People are fleeing terrible conditions, and they have a lawful right to declare asylum,” Aguilar said.
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“Temporary Protected Status was always meant to be temporary,” White House deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson said on Thursday. “It was never meant to be a pathway to permanent status or citizenship…our asylum system, for years, has been abused and exploited by bad actors…this ruling is a step in the right direction towards clearing up our asylum system and making sure that people can’t enter our country who shouldn’t be here — and that people who are here, who shouldn’t be here, should be deported.”
Asked what Democrats’ next step would be on TPS, Aguilar pointed to legislation he said Democrats forced through the House by discharge petition.
“Democrats led legislation in order to bring certainty to that. It’s sitting over in the Senate,” Aguilar said. “We forced a discharge petition, and were successful because we believe in governing.”
Aguilar appeared to be referring to House-passed legislation aimed at extending TPS protections for Haitians.
Rep. Shomari Figures, D-Ala., said he had not yet read the full decisions but was “beyond the point of being surprised by almost any decision that comes out of court.”
Figures defended TPS for Haiti, citing natural disasters, political instability and violence.
“There’s not a country that I think TPS is designed at its core that’s more deserving of that than the situations we currently see in Haiti,” Figures said.
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