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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accused President Donald Trump of “betrayal” after the Supreme Court handed his administration a pair of immigration victories 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 eliminate legal protections that have allowed many Haitians to stay and work in the United States since the 2010 Haiti earthquake and many Syrians since the country's civil war prompted a TPS designation in 2012.
Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., told Fox News Digital that the TPS decision targets the same people who Trump supporters were told would not be the focus of his aggressive immigrant deportation agenda.
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“I think it's really sad because these decisions are aimed at exactly the type of people that Republican voters said they didn't want to be targeted by the Trump administration's immigration policy,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) speaks to members of the media as she arrives for the final votes of the week at the U.S. Capitol Building on May 21, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
He argued that the ruling marked “a reversal of President Trump's promise to only go after, quote-unquote, criminals and rapists.”
“This decision to repeal TPS targets nurses, healthcare workers, domestic workers, cleaners, people who work in restaurants,” he said, calling it “a true betrayal of President Trump's promise.”
Ocasio-Cortez also argued that the ruling would harm American citizens by raising prices, making it harder to find workers while dividing long-standing communities.
House Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., criticized Trump and Republicans over the asylum ruling, saying the president has attacked “time and time again” a process that has been part of U.S. law for decades.
House Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar, D-Calif. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
“People are fleeing terrible conditions and have the legal right to declare asylum,” Aguilar said.
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“Temporary Protected Status was always intended to be temporary,” White House deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson said Thursday. “It was never intended to be a path 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 to clarify our asylum system and ensure that people who should not be here cannot enter our country, and that people who are here, who should not be here, should be deported.”
When asked what Democrats' next move would be on TPS, Aguilar pointed to legislation that he said Democrats passed in the House via a discharge petition.
“Democrats led the legislation to give certainty to that. It's in the Senate,” Aguilar said. “We forced a petition for discharge and we achieved it because we believe in the government.”
Aguilar appeared to be referring to legislation passed by the House aimed at expanding 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 the courts.”
Congressman Shomari Figures, D-Alabama, speaks at a health care press conference with other members of the House Democratic Caucus outside the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on November 12, 2025. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)
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Figures defended TPS for Haiti, citing natural disasters, political instability and violence.
“There is no country that I think TPS is essentially designed to be more deserving than the situations we currently see in Haiti,” Figures said.
