The Supreme Court's 6-3 ruling in Mullin v. Doe on June 25 ended Temporary Protected Status for Haitians and Syrians — but Bay Area advocates say the decision's real target is far broader: 1.3 million immigrants from 17 countries who may now face the same fate Fremont's Afghan community has been living for over a year.

The ruling, decided alongside a companion case Mullin v. Al Otro Lado, strips TPS from hundreds of thousands of people while clearing a legal path the Trump administration can now follow for any of the 17 remaining TPS-designated countries. Immigration attorneys and academics in the Bay Area say the Fremont Afghan community — already stripped of TPS, frozen out of immigration processing, and subjected to ICE door knocks in their neighborhoods — represents not just a cautionary tale but a deliberate rehearsal for what's coming nationally.

On June 25, the Supreme Court handed down two decisions that barely made the front page outside immigration circles. In Mullin v. Doe and its companion case Mullin v. Al Otro Lado, the 6-3 conservative majority upheld the Trump administration's authority to terminate Temporary Protected Status for Haitians and Syrians — people who have lived legally in the United States, often for decades, because returning home meant persecution, war, or disaster.

For Bay Area immigration attorney Spojmie Nasiri, the ruling landed like a verdict on the entire immigrant protection system.

"The decision yesterday by the Supreme Court on Mullins vs Doe, with a 6-3 decision, was catastrophic for the immigrant community," Nasiri told ABC7 News.

TPS is a federal designation created under the Bush administration in the 1990s that allows nationals from countries experiencing ongoing armed conflict or environmental catastrophe to live and work legally in the United States. It does not offer a path to citizenship — it is, by design, temporary. But for many holders, decades of renewal have made it the legal bedrock of their lives in the U.S.

The ruling directly affects Haitians and Syrians, but Nasiri — who works extensively with Afghan immigrants — says that's only the beginning.

"There are over 1.3 million immigrants who rely on TPS from 17 other countries," she said.

Fremont Already Knows What Comes Next

For the Afghan community centered in Fremont, the sequence of what "comes next" is not abstract. It has already happened.

In April 2025, the Department of Homeland Security sent letters to Afghan parolees with a message stripped of diplomatic softening: "It is time for you to leave. Don't attempt to remain in the United States. The federal government will find you. Please depart the United States immediately."

In July 2025, TPS for Afghans was formally terminated. In November, the U.S. government announced it would stop processing immigration requests from Afghanistan entirely. That same month, ICE conducted door knocks in a predominantly Afghan neighborhood in Fremont — not to arrest, but to signal presence.

Nasiri noted that even without imminent mass deportations, the removal of TPS has immediate, grinding economic consequences.

"When TPS is taken away, that means the ability to legally work in the United States is halted. In addition, drivers' licenses are halted, which then has severe economic consequences for individuals relying on that," she said.

Complicating matters further: advocates note that many former TPS holders cannot simply be deported to their home countries, because the same dangers that originally qualified them for protection still exist. That legal and humanitarian contradiction remains unresolved under the ruling.

'Creating a New America With Primarily White Immigrants'

Kim Geron, professor emeritus of Political Science at Cal State East Bay, said the ruling was not a surprise — but called it historically unprecedented.

"The only asylum seekers that are being allowed into this country as of 2026 are white South Africans. Everybody else has been denied," Geron told ABC7. "This is definitely about mass deportation. I think it is also about ethnic cleansing, or creating a new America with primarily white immigrants, white asylum seekers."

Geron said the Supreme Court decision could reshape how lower courts handle similar challenges going forward. Ongoing TPS cases in the federal pipeline will now face pressure to align with the Mullin ruling, potentially accelerating termination for additional nationalities without new Supreme Court review.

"I think they are going to be appealed by the Trump administration," Geron said. "And all those cases are going to have to be relooked at again. Some of them may find their way back up to the Supreme Court. Many may just go along with this ruling and say it also applies to them."

In California, the largest share of TPS holders come from El Salvador, Haiti, and Honduras. The Haitian TPS population includes significant Bay Area communities; the El Salvadoran and Honduran populations are among the Bay Area's longest-established immigrant communities.

The Mullin companion case — brought against Al Otro Lado, a prominent immigration legal services organization — signals the administration's appetite to challenge not just TPS designations but the advocacy organizations defending them in court. What the Fremont Afghan community experienced over the past fourteen months is now, advocates warn, the federal government's approved template.