Hundreds Of Venezuelan TPS Holders Reportedly Detained In Challenge Of Court Order

Hundreds of Venezuelan Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders have reportedly been detained by immigration enforcement agents despite a court order preventing them from doing so, according to a new report.

The claim was made by advocates and lawyers tracking such cases. They told the Miami Herald that they are being held across the country, and that most of those detained received TPS in 2023.

They stopped being protected by the measure between May 19, when the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to end the protection, and September 5, when a judge ruled on the merits of the case and extended it through October of next year.

Lawyers consulted by the outlet noted that the Board of Immigration Appeals recently issued a ruling that limits immigration judges' authority to review custody decisions by ICE for those who haven't been formally let into the U.S., a reason why many TPS holders are still detained even if they don't have criminal records and active deportation protection.

In this context, experts estimate the U.S. economy will lose billions of dollars due to a decreased participation from immigrants.

The estimate comes from fwd.us, a bipartisan political organization that researches immigration and the criminal justice system. According to an analysis from late July, the U.S. economy will lose $13.4 billion through the annual contribution to the economy through immigrant's spending power.

The workforce around the country will be impacted with the immigration policy changes as well. According to the study, the industry that will be the most impacted will be leisure and hospitality, where around 73,000 people will lose protections, while 370,000 will remain protected. That is followed by the construction industry, which will likely lose around 60,000 employees, while around 558,000 will likely remain employed. Other industries that will likely face high job losses include manufacturing (46,000), health services (44,000), wholesale and retail trade (36,000) and business services (34,000).

Temporary protections in the U.S. can include Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), Temporary Protected Status (TPS), humanitarian parole, U or T visa application backlog protections, a Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) application deferral, or an active asylum claim. As of January 2025, an estimated 6.4 million immigrants had temporary protections.

TPS status is usually awarded to migrants who come from countries ravaged by political, economic or humanitarian crises. Upon revoking such status for millions of migrants earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security pointed out that they believed the crises in some of those countries had improved, and that temporary protections were not meant to last decades.

Instead, DHS has urged migrants to self-deport once their status comes to a close, which could give migrants the opportunity to come back to the U.S. through other legal means.