By Curtis Brodner
(WASHINGTON) The Supreme Court unanimously ruled Monday that immigrants allowed to live in the United States for humanitarian reasons are not eligible for permanent residence, the Associated Press reported.
The ruling will prevent people who entered the country illegally and then later received Temporary Protected Status, a designation granted to people fleeing war, natural disasters and other dangerous situations, from seeking green cards.
“The TPS program gives foreign nationals nonimmigrant status, but it does not admit them,” wrote Justice Elena Kagan. “So the conferral of TPS does not make an unlawful entrant...eligible.”
This case regarded a couple from El Salvador that entered the country illegally in the 1990s and were later granted TPS.
Federal courts around the country were split on whether the granting of TPS makes a person eligible for permanent residency.
The House of Representatives has already passed a bill that would allow all TPS recipients to apply for green cards, though it faces steep odds in the Senate.
President Joe Biden said he supports the legislation, but his administration has publicly stated he agrees that TPS recipients who entered the country illegally are not eligible for permanent residency under the current law.