Supreme Court allows Trump to cancel protected status for Venezuelans

WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration on Monday to end legal protections that have shielded some 350,000 Venezuelans from potential deportation.

The top court granted a request by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to revoke temporary protected status (TPS) for the Venezuelans while an appeal proceeds in a lower court.

The United States grants TPS to foreign citizens who cannot safely return home because of war, natural disasters or other “extraordinary” conditions. A federal judge in California put a temporary stay in March on the Trump administration´s plans to end TPS for the Venezuelan nationals. US District Judge Edward Chen said the plan to end TPS “smacks of racism” and mischaracterizes Venezuelans as criminals.

“Acting on the basis of a negative group stereotype and generalizing such stereotype to the entire group is the classic example of racism,” Chen wrote. Solicitor General John Sauer filed an emergency application with the conservative-majority Supreme Court asking it to stay the judge´s order.

“So long as the order is in effect, the secretary must permit hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan nationals to remain in the country, notwithstanding her reasoned determination that doing so is ´contrary to the national interest,´” Sauer said. Former president Joe Biden extended TPS for another 18 months just days before Donald Trump returned to the White House in January.

Trump campaigned for president promising to deport millions of undocumented migrants and a number of his executive orders around immigration have encountered pushback from judges across the country -- including the Supreme Court.

Trump lashed out at the Supreme Court last week after it blocked his bid to resume deportations of alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua using an obscure wartime law, the 1798 Alien Enemies Act (AEA).