Court rejects Trump bid to end Venezuelan migrants’ legal status

WASHINGTON: A federal appeals court rejected on Friday a request by US President Donald Trump’s administration to allow it to move forward with stripping temporary legal protections for about 350,000 Venezuelan migrants, exposing them to imminent deportation.

The San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals declined to pause a lower-court judge’s March 31 order halting Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s decision to terminate the temporary status that was granted to some Venezuelans.

A three-judge panel of the court said the Trump administration had not shown it would suffer irreparable harm if the lower court ruling stands pending its appeal. The move to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Venezuelans is part of Trump’s broader immigration crackdown, and Friday’s decision marks the latest legal setback for his agenda. A judge in a separate case has said Trump administration officials could face criminal contempt charges for violating his order halting deportations of alleged members of a Venezuelan gang.

TPS is available to people whose home country has experienced a natural disaster, armed conflict or other extraordinary event. The 9th Circuit’s decision came in a lawsuit filed by several Venezuelans living in the US and the National TPS Alliance, which advocates for immigrants who have been granted temporary protected status.

The group and the US Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Their lawsuit challenged Noem’s February 3 decision to end TPS for about 348,000 out of the approximately 600,000 Venezuelan immigrants in the program, effective April 7.

Had the termination of TPS taken effect, they could have faced the prospect of deportation and the loss of work permits. The rest of the Venezuelans in the programme could lose their legal status and associated benefits in September.

At least four other lawsuits have been filed challenging Noem’s termination of TPS protections for Venezuelans and Haitians that were implemented by the administration of Democratic former President Joe Biden.

The Biden administration first granted TPS to Venezuelans in 2021, citing high levels of crime in Venezuela related to political and economic instability under President Nicolas Maduro. Days before Biden left office in January, the Department of Homeland Security extended the program until October 2026. Noem moved swiftly to terminate that decision after taking office.

In a March 31 ruling, US District Judge Edward Chen said Noem’s decision to end existing protections for migrants was unprecedented in the 35 years of the TPS program. He said the plaintiffs had established a likelihood of succeeding in demonstrating that Noem lacked legal authority to vacate the Biden-era decision and had been motivated by an unconstitutional animus against Venezuelans.