In the Press: What the Court Gave, and What It Took
Our comments to the media about the latest immigration news
A Door Fully Closed
On Tuesday, I appeared on CNN’s Amanpour to discuss the Supreme Court’s recent immigration rulings. The birthright order had no legal basis and the court was right to reject it. The TPS ruling is a different story — it leaves Haitians trapped between a disaster zone and illegal status, and the administration has cut legal immigration by nearly 50% while welcoming white South Africans. That contrast that lacks a rational basis.
More comments in the media, from last Wednesday:
The One Line Trump Couldn’t Cross
In The Associated Press, Rebecca Santana reported that the Supreme Court gave the Trump administration “the backing it was looking for” on immigration across nearly every front, with birthright citizenship as “one key exception.”
David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank that advocates for more immigration, said the court’s decision has a far wider impact than just the 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians covered by the case. Roughly 1 million others are covered by temporary protected status decisions, and Bier said the ruling leaves them without any meaningful way to challenge the administration’s moves. “It just fully closed the door to any challenges,” Bier said.
Britain as a Warning, Not Blueprint
In The Daily Wire, Zach Stark argued that "there is no serious evidence to support the claim that legally residing immigrants commit crimes at higher rates than native born Americans," drawing on Britain's experience with mass migration to warn against conflating legal and illegal immigration.
A 2019 study from the Cato Institute found that 75% of first-generation immigrants were “very proud” to be Americans — over and above the 69% of native-born Americans. Immigrants have also historically reported higher levels of respect for American law enforcement.
A Green Light With One Red Line
In MISRYOUM, Nina Krueger reported that the Supreme Court “backed much of President Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration push,” ending temporary protections for Haitians and Syrians, limiting asylum applicants, and expanding officer power over certain green card holders — while refusing to narrow birthright citizenship.
David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank that advocates for more immigration, said the decision’s implications stretch beyond the 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians named in the case, noting that roughly 1 million others hold temporary protected status and that the ruling left all of them without a meaningful way to challenge the administration’s actions. “It just fully closed the door to any challenges,” Bier said.
The Bill Comes Due
In the Daily Sentinel, letter writer Mike Corbett reported that "ICE's budget a decade ago was $6 billion, and in 2026 was raised to $30 billion," warning that the accelerating costs of mass deportation are straining Social Security, eliminating jobs held by non-immigrant Americans, and hitting sectors like healthcare where immigrant labor is concentrated.
ICE operations detained 329,000 in fiscal year 2025. In November of 2025, the Cato Institute reported only 5% of these had a violent conviction, and those “violent convictions” included minor assaults like bar fights, and 73% had no convictions.