Holders of TPS after illegal entry do not have a green card

The Supreme Court on Monday unanimously ruled that immigrants who have entered the United States illegally cannot apply for a green card. Temporary protected mode, Of TPS.

The decision is a setback for thousands of U.S. residents who have been granted temporary protection from deportation due to unsafe conditions in their home countries and now want to stay in the United States permanently.

“The question here is whether giving him a DPS can get him LPR [Legal Permanent Residency] Despite his illegal entry. “We do not think he will,” Judge Elena Kagan wrote in the Op-Ed.

Federal law allows some immigrants to change their legal status in the United States, if they are “allowed” in the country. Kagan explained that DPS – a position granted by the State Department due to humanitarian or security conditions in a country – is not acceptable.

“Entry” is defined as the legal entry of a stranger into the United States after inspection and accreditation: Immigration “TBS grants foreigners non-immigrant status, but does not acknowledge them,” he wrote.

The lawsuit was probably funded by Jose Santos Sanchez, a Salvador immigrant who entered the United States illegally in 1993, but was later protected by the Temporary Protection Act of 2001. He applied for a green card in 2014, but did not qualify.

The Supreme Court’s ruling means that this decision will continue.

According to the Congressional Research Service, there are currently 320,000 foreigners living in the United States and protected by TPS. Immigrants come from 10 countries: El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

Immigration lawyers say many of them, especially from Central America, are not legally allowed in the United States. If the DPS status is revoked, they are expected to return to their home country or risk being deported.