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White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller speaks to reporters outside the White House, May 9, 2025, in Washington. (AP) White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller speaks to reporters outside the White House, May 9, 2025, in Washington. (AP)

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller speaks to reporters outside the White House, May 9, 2025, in Washington. (AP)

Maria Ramirez Uribe
By Maria Ramirez Uribe May 15, 2025

Stephen Miller said courts can’t rule on Trump’s immigration actions. Legal experts say he’s wrong.

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  • The Immigration and Nationality Act lays out the process by which immigrants can appeal decisions in their immigration cases and when federal courts can get involved. 

  • Federal courts have limited jurisdiction over immigration cases, which are generally handled by immigration courts — under the Justice Department, not the judiciary branch.

  • The Immigration and Nationality Act did not strip federal courts of their function to rule on the constitutionality of a president’s immigration actions.

With President Donald Trump frustrated over federal courts slowing his pursuit of mass deportations, one key adviser said these courts violated the law by weighing in at all.

White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller addressed a federal court’s March decision to temporarily block Homeland Security Secretary Kirsti Noem’s termination of Temporary Protected Status for certain Venezuelans, approved under former President Joe Biden.

"Congress passed a body of law known as the Immigration and Nationality Act, which stripped Article III courts, that's the judicial branch, of jurisdiction over immigration cases," White House adviser Stephen Miller told reporters May 9. "So, when Secretary Noem terminated TPS for the illegals that Biden flew into the country, when courts stepped in, they were violating explicit language that Congress enacted."

Miller’s statement is wrong in a couple of ways. 

Biden did not fly immigrants into the U.S. People had to pay for their travel to the U.S. under a program that let certain people temporarily and legally live and work in the U.S. Temporary Protected Status is a separate program that prevents the deportation of certain people already in the U.S.

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Although the Immigration and Nationality Act limits federal courts’ authority to hear appeals on certain immigration cases, it does not say courts can’t rule on the constitutionality of a president’s immigration actions.

The Homeland Security secretary can grant Temporary Protected Status to people from certain countries undergoing war, environmental disasters and epidemics. The program allows eligible immigrants to legally live and work in the U.S. for six- to 18-month periods.

Legal experts said the court was within bounds to rule on the matter.

"There is absolutely nothing about an immigration policy that, by virtue of the fact that it is an immigration policy, that insulates it from judicial review," Michael Gerhardt, a University of North Carolina professor of jurisprudence, previously told PolitiFact.

The Immigration and Nationality Act lays out federal courts’ role in immigration cases

More than 70 U.S. immigration courts hear immigration cases, such as a person’s asylum application and deportation proceedings. Immigration courts fall under the executive branch in the Justice Department, not the judiciary branch as federal courts do.

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 lays out the process by which immigrants can appeal decisions in their immigration cases and when federal courts can get involved. 

"Congress did pare back review by federal courts of immigration cases," Hiroshi Motomura, University of California, Los Angeles immigration law professor, said. "Congress also put some constraints on when courts could hear claims arising out of immigration cases."

For example, people can only seek a federal court’s review on a deportation order within 30 days of getting the order. And immigrants generally can’t seek a federal court’s review if they’re ordered deported through expedited removal — a fast track deportation process.

But the Immigration and Nationality Act didn’t strip federal courts from jurisdiction over all immigration cases.

"Congress did not — and could not, due to provisions of the US Constitution — end all court jurisdiction to hear immigration cases" Motomura said. "In this key sense, Miller is very wrong."

Rick Su, University of North Carolina immigration law professor, previously told PolitiFact that  federal courts "reverse specific immigration decisions all the time."

"This is especially true when it comes to asylum or removal proceedings with defective processes," Su said. "Courts often do strike down executive branch actions with respect to specific immigrants."

Federal courts can rule on the legality of the president’s immigration actions

The role of federal courts in immigration has grown over the past several presidential administrations, mainly because Congress hasn’t updated immigration law in decades. 

As legislative policy stagnates, presidents have increasingly used their executive power to enforce immigration law to increase legal pathways, limit asylum or quickly deport people. In return, states, immigrants and advocacy organizations have sued the federal government

The federal government has broad power over immigration enforcement. But its actions can still be reviewed by federal courts.

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"They do that to ensure that the government acts in a way that's consistent with law, both with the Immigration and Nationality Act and with the federal Constitution," Matthew Lindsay, a University of Baltimore law professor, previously told PolitiFact.

During former President Barack Obama’s administration, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a split 4-4 ruling, leaving in place a lower court’s decision that blocked Obama’s planned expansion of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that prevents the deportation of immigrants who entered the United States illegally as children.

Under Biden, a federal judge blocked the administration from creating a program that would have helped people who are in the U.S. illegally get citizenship if they were married to, or the children of, U.S. citizens.

As for Temporary Protected Status, the Immigration and Nationality Act gives the Homeland Security secretary the authority to designate which countries’ immigrants are eligible. "The general rule is that the courts cannot review the President's TPS designations," Kevin Johnson, University of California Davis immigration law professor, said. 

The Temporary Protected Status statute says "there is no judicial review" for the "designation, or termination or extension" of a country under this program. 

However, Johnson said, the courts can step in to determine whether the administration has violated the Constitution or the Administrative Procedure Act — a law describing how federal agencies can make and enforce regulations. 

In the case against Noem’s termination of Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans, the plaintiffs argue that Noem violated the Administrative Procedure Act and that the decision was racially motivated.

In his ruling, Obama-appointed District Judge Edward Chen, who temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s Temporary Protected Status termination for certain Venezuelans, cited the Administrative Procedure Act. He said the plaintiffs would "likely succeed in demonstrating that the actions taken by the Secretary are unauthorized by law, arbitrary and capricious, and motivated by unconstitutional animus."

Our ruling

Miller said the Immigration and Nationality Act "stripped Article III courts, that's the judicial branch, of jurisdiction over immigration cases."

The Immigration and Nationality Act limited federal court’s jurisdiction over immigration cases, such as appeals for certain immigration decisions. But it did not strip the courts of their function to rule on the constitutionality of a president’s immigration actions.

Federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, have and continue to rule on presidential actions on immigration, legal experts say. The courts weigh in on whether an administration’s action is constitutional, in line with the Immigration and Nationality Act or in compliance with the Administrative Procedure Act. 

We rate the statement False.

Our Sources

Rapid Response 47, Post, May 9, 2025

PolitiFact, Biden isn’t flying migrants to Florida. People pay for their own flights, legally enter the US, May 9, 2024

PolitiFact, Immigration experts say JD Vance is wrong. Haitians under temporary programs are in the US legally., Oct. 3, 2024

Federal Register, Termination of the October 3, 2023 Designation of Venezuela for Temporary Protected Status, Feb. 5, 2025

SCOTUSblog, Venezuelan TPS recipients tell justices to let status stand, May 8, 2025

PolitiFact, How spin and falsehoods propelled Trump's immigration crackdown in his first 100 days, April 28, 2025

Executive Office for Immigration Review, 1.5 - Public Access, accessed May 15, 2025

U.S. Code, §1252. Judicial review of orders of removal, accessed May 15, 2025

American Immigration Council, Background on Judicial Review of Immigration Decisions, accessed May 15, 2025

PolitiFact, Did Bill Clinton create a fast-track deportation process exempt from due process? No., May 12, 2025

PolitiFact, How spin and falsehoods propelled Trump's immigration crackdown in his first 100 days, April 28, 2025

Bipartisan Policy Center, How the Supreme Court is Shaping Immigration Policy, Sept. 26, 2022

Migration Policy Institute, Federal Judges Step into the Void to Set U.S. Immigration Policy, March 20, 2023

Congressional Research Service, An Overview of Judicial Review of Immigration Matters, Sept. 11, 2013

PolitiFact, Courts are still debating the legality of DACA, June 29, 2022

PolitiFact, Biden broke his promise to provide citizenship to millions of immigrants in the U.S. illegally, Dec. 19, 2024

Cornell Law School, 8 U.S. Code § 1254a - Temporary protected status, accessed May 15, 2025

Courthouse News Service, Venezuelan immigrants fight to keep protections under threat by Trump, March 24, 2025

BIG Immigration Law Blog, Court Halts TPS Termination for Venezuelans: Relief (and Uncertainty) for Employers, April 3, 2025

United States District Court Northern District Of California, National Tps Alliance, Et Al., Plaintiffs, V. Kristi Noem, Et Al., Defendants, March 31, 2025

One First, 148. Suspending Habeas Corpus, May 9, 2025

Email interview, Hiroshi Motomura, Faculty Co-Director, Center for Immigration Law and Policy, University of California, Los Angeles, May 13, 2025

Email interview, Kevin R. Johnson, Distinguished Professor of Law, Mabie-Apallas Professor of Public Interest Law and Professor of Chicana/o Studies, University of California, Davis, May 13, 2025

Phone interview, Matthew Lindsay, associate professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law, April 21, 2025

Email interview, Rick Su, Arch T. Allen Distinguished Professor of Law, University of North Carolina, April 21, 2025

Email interview, Michael Gerhardt, Burton Craige Distinguished Professor of Jurisprudence, University of North Carolina, April 18, 2025

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Stephen Miller said courts can’t rule on Trump’s immigration actions. Legal experts say he’s wrong.

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