Trump Administration Asks Supreme Court to Let It End Protections for Over 300,000 Venezuelan Migrants

The Trump administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to lift a lower court order blocking its effort to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for more than 300,000 Venezuelan migrants living in the United States. If granted, the request would clear the way for deportations to begin as early as this year.

In an emergency appeal, Solicitor General John Sauer urged the justices to permit Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to proceed with her decision to end TPS for Venezuelans.

Sauer argued that the district court order currently preventing the termination "wrested control of immigration policy away from the Executive Branch," and insisted that Noem's determination to end protections was lawful and based on national interest, The Guardian detailed.

The decision in question was issued back in March by U.S. District Judge Edward Chen, who issued a temporary injunction against the termination stating that "the secretary's action threatens to inflict irreparable harm" on hundreds of thousands of people and could cost the U.S. billions in economic activity.

Chen also found that the administration had "failed to identify any real countervailing harm" to continuing TPS and said the plaintiffs were likely to prove that the decision was "unauthorized by law, arbitrary and capricious, and motivated by unconstitutional animus." Chen's ruling referenced comments by Noem portraying Venezuelans as gang members and labeling them "dirt bags" on social media.

The Justice Department responded by accusing the court of "cherry-picking" and mischaracterizing those statements, arguing they reflected condemnation of gang violence rather than racial animus, as Politico reports.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied the administration's request to pause Chen's order on April 18, prompting the appeal to the Supreme Court. The justices have given TPS recipients and their advocates until May 8 to respond.

TPS offers deportation relief and work authorization to migrants from countries facing war, disaster, or extraordinary conditions. The Biden administration granted TPS to Venezuelans in 2021, citing repression, humanitarian collapse, and civil unrest under President Nicolás Maduro. The Trump administration has argued that those conditions no longer justify continued protections.