The Supreme Court on Monday sided with President Trump’s administration, allowing it to revoke temporary protected status (TPS) for nearly 350,000 Venezuelans living in the United States.
The Court granted a request from the Justice Department to lift a previous order from U.S. District Judge Edward Chen, who had blocked Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s move to terminate the TPS designation. That protection had been extended under Joe Biden, who first designated Venezuela for TPS in 2021 and renewed it again in 2023. Just days before leaving office in January, Biden extended the protection through 2026.
Noem reversed the extension shortly after Trump’s return to the White House, aiming to end TPS protections for a subset of Venezuelans who had qualified under the more recent designation. DHS estimates that about 348,202 Venezuelans were registered under the 2023 expansion.
Judge Chen had sided with plaintiffs including TPS recipients and the National TPS Alliance, who argued that Venezuela remains dangerous. He ruled that Noem’s decision violated federal administrative law and pointed to the administration’s language suggesting that the policy change was influenced by “negative stereotypes” portraying Venezuelan migrants as criminals.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had previously refused to pause Chen’s ruling, but the Supreme Court’s decision overrides that stance and allows the administration to proceed.
