Supreme Court allows Trump to revoke protections for Venezuelan migrants

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday cleared the way for President Donald Trump’s administration to revoke temporary legal protections for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants living in the United States. This decision follows a previous ruling in May that supported the administration’s move to terminate Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, amid ongoing litigation.

The justices granted the government’s request to put a hold on a lower court ruling by U.S. District Judge Edward Chen, who found that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem lacked the authority to end TPS, which provides protections for migrants from countries facing emergencies.

In a ruling issued on September 5, Chen stated that Noem’s actions to end TPS violated federal law and that more than 300,000 Venezuelan TPS holders could remain in the country. Despite this, the Supreme Court, with its conservative majority, ruled that the same reasoning applied from their earlier May decision, allowing the termination to proceed.

“The same result that we reached in May is appropriate here,” the court said in an unsigned order. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was among the three liberal justices dissenting, calling the decision an abuse of the court’s emergency docket and criticizing the prioritization of executive power over lower court judgments.

Jackson emphasized that the effects of this ruling could lead to job loss, family separation, and deportation for vulnerable Venezuelans, especially given that the U.S. government has acknowledged the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela. She reflected on the impact of the ruling, stating: “We once again use our equitable power to allow this administration to disrupt as many lives as possible, as quickly as possible.”

The TPS program was initially created in 1990 to offer temporary protection to migrants from countries experiencing crises, including wars and natural disasters. The Biden administration designated Venezuelans eligible for TPS in 2021 and later extended it to October 2026 shortly before Trump regained office.

However, Noem’s decision to rescind protections for some Venezuelans has prompted legal challenges, arguing that her actions reflected racial and political biases. Critics, including Judge Chen, pointed out Noem’s generalized statements about Venezuelan TPS holders, linking them to crime rather than recognizing their contributions to society.

Trump’s administration continues to pursue aggressive policies on immigration, stripping temporary legal protections to expand the possible pool of deportees. In another related instance earlier this year, the Supreme Court allowed the administration to revoke “humanitarian parole” for 532,000 migrants from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti, and Nicaragua.