The US Supreme Court permitted Donald Trump’s administration on Monday to revoke around 350,000 Venezuelans residing in the United States of a temporary protected status that was bestowed under his predecessor Joe Biden, as Republican President Trump advances to accelerate deportations as part of his tough immigration policy.
Court Ruling on TPS Suspension
The court approved the request of the Justice Department to suspend San Francisco-based US District Judge Edward Chen’s order which had stopped Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem from canceling the deportation protection granted to Venezuelans under the temporary protected status, or TPS, program.
Chen did so in a lawsuit filed by plaintiffs such as some of the TPS recipients and the National TPS Alliance advocacy group, who argued that Venezuela is still not a safe country.
Deportation Plans and Immigration Policy of Trump
Trump, back in the presidency since January, has vowed to deport record numbers of illegally present migrants in the United States and moved to take away temporary legal protections from some migrants, broadening the number of potential deportees.
The TPS program designates nations afflicted by war, natural disaster, or other calamities as humanitarian, granting beneficiaries residing in the US deportation relief and the ability to obtain work permits. The US Secretary of Homeland Security may extend the designation.
Biden Administration’s TPS Designation for Venezuela
Joe Biden, a Democrat, US government twice designated Venezuela for TPS, in 2023 and 2021. In January, days before Trump’s return to power, the Biden administration extended the programs to 2026.
Noem, a Trump appointee, revoked the extension and sought to terminate the TPS designation for a group of Venezuelans covered by the 2023 designation. The Department of Homeland Security stated that approximately 348,202 Venezuelans were enrolled under that 2023 designation.
Legal Ruling on TPS Cancellation in US
Chen ruled that Noem had broken a federal statute that dictates how agencies act. The judge further stated the cancellation of the TPS status seemed to have been based on “negative stereotypes” by suggesting the Venezuelan migrants were criminals.
“Generalization of criminality to the Venezuelan TPS population as a whole is baseless and smacks of racism predicated on generalized false stereotypes,” Chen wrote, adding that Venezuelan TPS holders were more likely to hold bachelor’s degrees than American citizens and less likely to commit crimes than the general US population.
Court Appeals and Administration’s Standpoint
The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on April 18 rejected the administration’s appeal to suspend the judge’s ruling.
Justice Department attorneys in their Supreme Court brief stated Chen had “wrested control of the nation’s immigration policy” from the government’s executive branch, led by Trump.
The plaintiffs told the Supreme Court that granting the administration’s request “would strip work authorization from nearly 350,000 people living in the US, expose them to deportation to an unsafe country and cost billions in economic losses nationwide.”
State Department’s Warning on Venezuela in US
The State Department currently warns against travel to Venezuela “due to the high risk of wrongful detentions, terrorism, kidnapping, the arbitrary enforcement of local laws, crime, civil unrest, poor health infrastructure.”
The Trump administration in April also terminated TPS for thousands of Afghans and Cameroonians in the United States. Those actions are not part of the current case.
