Trump finds partner in supreme court in his war against immigration

In the US supreme court, it seems Donald Trump has found loyalists in his crusade against immigration and immigrants. In a pair of rulings Thursday, the court allowed the Trump administration to end humanitarian protections that have granted people from Haiti and Syria the right to live and work legally in the US for more than a decade, and cleared way for the government to turn away asylum seekers at the US-Mexico border by physically blocking them from setting foot on US soil. And on Tuesday, the court granted border officials broad discretion to deport lawful permanent residents or green card holders. In each of these cases, a 6-3 conservative majority on the highest US court offered the administration broad powers to circumvent or selectively administer immigration law – as it sees fit. More broadly, this week’s decisions are among dozens of new administration policies that seek to radically restrict or remove immigrants of colour, and redefine who has a chance to live in the US and consider themselves American. Still looming is the court’s decision on whether Trump can deny birthright citizenship to thousands of people born in the US to parents of temporary visitors and undocumented immigrants. In the ruling allowing the administration to end temporary protected status (TPS) for hundreds of thousands people, the supreme court signalled that it is unwilling to grapple with the racist and nativist philosophy fueling Trump’s immigration policies. …