WASHINGTON (CN) - Congressional Democrats on Tuesday urged the Supreme Court to strike down efforts by the Trump administration to end temporary protected status for hundreds of thousands of migrants living in the United States.

The call from lawmakers - just a day before the justices are expected to examine whether the Homeland Security Department can end legal deportation protections for people from Haiti and Syria - also comes as the Senate considers a measure to extend that program for Haitian migrants which cleared the House on a bipartisan basis.

"This is not an appeal for charity or even benevolence," said Massachusetts Representative Ayanna Pressley during a news conference on the Capitol steps Tuesday morning. "This is the right thing to do, the smart thing to do, the responsible thing to do - not from a place of generosity but instead from a place of reciprocity."

Pressley, a Democrat, led a successful effort in the House this month to extend temporary protected status for Haitian nationals living in the U.S. After clearing a procedural hurdle fast-tracking the measure to a final vote, the lower chamber approved Pressley's bill on a 224-204 vote. Nearly a dozen House Republicans voted alongside Democrats to extend legal protections for Haitian migrants.

The Massachusetts congresswoman pointed to what she called a "broad, diverse, bipartisan coalition" which got her measure across the finish line in the House. And she added that Democrats would be "exhaustive in leveraging every tool available" to protect the temporary legal status program.

Though the proposed TPS extension cleared the House with support from both parties, it's unclear how the measure will fare in the Senate, where it will need 60 votes to advance.

Asked whether she thought her bill could secure the necessary backing from Senate Republicans, Pressley largely refused to speculate, saying instead that her goal is to apply "pressure" on lawmakers and the Supreme Court.

"I'm just working my plan, and that's how we achieved this victory in the House in the first place," she said. "So, I won't do any forecasting."

But the Massachusetts Democrat noted she'd gotten a "fair amount of incoming" from Senate Democrats who had asked to be involved in efforts to protect TPS and that she thought she would find "surprising allies" in that process.

And Pressley added that in her negotiations with House lawmakers she'd focused on members from states with large Haitian constituencies such as Ohio, Florida, New York and Pennsylvania. Several House Republicans from those states backed her proposed measure earlier this month.

"Even though some of them admitted they were afraid of the president and what his response might be given this culture of political intimidation, at the end of the day they chose to side with the people who sent them to Washington and who show up for their communities each and every day," the congresswoman said.

Pressley was joined Tuesday by Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey and Delaware Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester, both of whom called on their colleagues in the upper chamber to pass the proposed measure extending TPS for Haitian migrants.

"To honor and protect TPS holders is not only a moral duty," said Markey. "It's also an acknowledgement of the immense contribution which TPS holders give to our families every day."

The Homeland Security Department and former agency secretary Kristi Noem last year revoked temporary deportation protections for the more than 350,000 Haitian migrants living in the U.S., arguing the program was no longer in the "national interest." The Trump administration has made similar moves to cancel TPS status for Venezuela and Syria.

The Supreme Court in October cleared the way for the Trump administration to end temporary status for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants. But the justices on Wednesday are set to hear oral arguments in a case challenging the White House efforts to revoke TPS for Haiti and Syria.

Lawmakers who rallied in support of TPS on Tuesday were joined by residents of senior living facilities and officials representing home care workers who said people living in the U.S. on temporary protected status are essential to their communities.

"The termination of temporary protected status is not accidental," said Athena Jones, a home care worker and member of the Service Employees International Union. "It's an attack on communities that are predominantly Black and brown immigrants who are here to work and make a better lives for themselves."

In Virginia, where she works, Jones said the demand for home care workers is increasing faster than roles can be filled and that such a shortage is a "crisis" for aging Americans.

"You cannot remove caregivers and expect the system to survive," she said, adding the government needs to provide "real solutions" that recognizes the value of the workforce such as a pathway to citizenship and extensions to protected status.

Made law as part of the 1990 Immigration Act, the temporary protected status program established a process allowing the government to grant deportation protections to people living in the U.S. who are temporarily unable to return home because of war, natural disasters or other extraordinary circumstances.

Congress granted migrants from Haiti temporary status in 2010 after an earthquake in the Caribbean nation which killed hundreds of thousands of people. The program was last extended in 2024 by then-President Joe Biden,

Pressley, for her part, said Tuesday that her push to preserve TPS for Haitian migrants had a personal dimension. She got emotional as she described home care workers from Haiti who looked after her mother as she battled cancer.

"In the final weeks of my mother's life, it was Haitian nurses who prayed over my mother, who sang to my mother, who oiled her scalp and braided her hair," said the Massachusetts Democrat. "Everyone who calls this country home benefits from TPS and stands to be harmed by this termination."

Source: Courthouse News Service