Supreme Court allows Trump end protection status for Venezuelan nationals
The Supreme Court cleared the way on Monday for the Trump administration’s decision to end the protection of hundreds of thousand Venezuelan citizens who live in the United States. In a short, unsigned order, they halted a ruling of a federal San Francisco judge that had prevented Kristi Noem from terminating protection. The justices left the possibility open that Venezuelan citizens may challenge Noem’s attempts to terminate their work permits, or to remove them to the United States. Justice Ketanji Jackson said that she would deny the government’s request, and leave the lower court’s decision in place as litigation continues. Alejandro Mayorkas was the DHS Secretary at the time. He initially designated Venezuela as a country with nationals who were eligible to work in the United States under the Temporary Protected Status Program. This designation was later extended. The program was created in 1990 and gives the DHS Secretary the power to designate a country when its citizens are unable to return to their home country due to a natural disaster, an armed conflict or other “extraordinary temporary conditions”. The dispute before the Supreme Court began earlier this year when Noem announced that the TPS designation for over 300,000 Venezuelan citizens would be terminated (alongside its extensions).
This announcement prompted plaintiffs to seek a postponement of the termination in federal court in San Francisco. Senior U.S. district judge Edward Chen granted this request, calling Noem’s conduct in trying to lift an existing TPS designator “unprecedented.” Chen suggested that Noem relied on “negative stereotyping” about Venezuelan migrants when deciding to end the designation. The Trump administration went to the Supreme Court after the U.S. Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit, refused to suspend Chen’s order while the government appealed. U.S. D. John Sauer, the Solicitor General, told the justices the TPS program “implicated particularly discretionary, sensitive and foreign-policy laden judgments of Executive Branch regarding immigration policies.” He also said that federal immigration law prohibits the courts from reviewing secretary’s determination.
The Venezuelan TPS recipients urged the justices not to change Chen’s order. They wrote that pausing the order now “would cause more harm than would be prevented, inflicting mass injury on” them through “lost employment and widespread deportations into an unsafe country.” This would be especially unnecessary, as the government hasn’t shown that it will be harmed if Chen’s orders remain in place while its appeal is being heard in the 9th Circuit. The 9th Circuit has expedited the case and scheduled argument for mid-July. The justices issued an order that put Chen’s order on pause for the duration of the government’s appeal through the 9th Circuit, and if necessary the Supreme Court. This was more than a week following the conclusion of the briefing. The justices are still examining another emergency appeal from the Trump administration arising from its efforts to revoke the parole of more than 500,000 noncitizens who came from Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua.
Posted in Emergency appeals and applications, Featured
Cases: Noem v. National TPS Alliance
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Amy Howe
Supreme Court allows Trump end protection status for Venezuelan nationals.
SCOTUSblog
(May. 19, 2025, 3:02 PM),
