The Supreme Court handed a significant win to the Trump administration on Monday by allowing it to revoke temporary protected status (TPS) for around 350,000 Venezuelans living in the U.S.—a status originally granted during Joe Biden’s presidency. The decision aligns with Trump’s ongoing commitment to ramp up deportations and enforce tougher immigration controls.
The high court agreed to a Justice Department request to overturn a prior ruling by Judge Edward Chen of the U.S. District Court in San Francisco. Chen had blocked Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s move to end the TPS designation for Venezuelans. The TPS designation had provided recipients with protection from deportation and the right to work legally in the U.S.
As is customary with emergency rulings, the court issued an unsigned decision. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the lone dissenter, publicly disagreeing with the majority’s action.
The case stemmed from a lawsuit brought by several Venezuelan TPS recipients and the National TPS Alliance, who argued that returning to Venezuela would pose serious safety risks due to the country’s ongoing turmoil.
Since taking office in January, Trump has promised a crackdown on illegal immigration, vowing to deport large numbers of undocumented individuals. As part of this agenda, he has moved to revoke protections like TPS that shield certain groups from deportation.
TPS is a legal status granted to nationals from countries experiencing war, natural disasters, or other crises. It permits those already in the U.S. to remain and work legally for a set period. The decision to designate or renew TPS status lies with the Secretary of Homeland Security.
During his time in office, Biden designated Venezuela for TPS twice—in 2021 and again in 2023. In the final days of his presidency, Biden extended the program through 2026. That move was reversed by Noem, who canceled the 2023 designation for a portion of Venezuelans, affecting an estimated 348,202 individuals.
Judge Chen concluded that Noem’s cancellation violated administrative law and was based on prejudiced assumptions. He took issue with the portrayal of Venezuelans as criminals, saying such a view lacked evidence and was steeped in bias.
“Generalization of criminality to the Venezuelan TPS population as a whole is baseless and smacks of racism predicated on generalized false stereotypes,” Chen wrote. He added that Venezuelan TPS holders were statistically more likely to have earned college degrees than the average U.S. citizen and less likely to commit crimes.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals declined the government’s request to pause Chen’s ruling on April 18, leaving the lower court’s decision in place—until Monday’s Supreme Court intervention.
In their filing to the Supreme Court, Justice Department attorneys accused Judge Chen of exceeding his authority and interfering with the executive branch’s constitutional role in shaping immigration policy.
“The court’s order contravenes fundamental Executive Branch prerogatives and indefinitely delays sensitive policy decisions in an area of immigration policy that Congress recognized must be flexible, fast-paced, and discretionary,” the government’s legal team argued.
Opponents of the administration’s policy warned the justices that approving the government’s request would have dire consequences. “Would strip work authorization from nearly 350,000 people living in the U.S., expose them to deportation to an unsafe country and cost billions in economic losses nationwide,” they wrote.
The U.S. State Department currently advises against travel to Venezuela, citing numerous risks including “wrongful detentions, terrorism, kidnapping, the arbitrary enforcement of local laws, crime, civil unrest, [and] poor health infrastructure.”
In a broader push to roll back temporary legal protections, the Trump administration also ended TPS for thousands of Afghans and Cameroonians in April. Those decisions, however, are separate from this case.
{Matzav.com}