Court denies Trump’s urgent bid to halt Venezuela ruling

SAN FRANCISCO – A federal appeals court in San Francisco upheld a previous court injunction preventing the Trump administration from terminating temporary legal protections for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans, a significant step in immigration policy.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, comprising a three-judge panel, denied the Department of Homeland Security’s plea for an emergency stay amid their ongoing appeal. The court stated that the government did not prove the risk of suffering “irreparable harm” without the stay.
In March, U.S. District Judge Edward Chen ruled that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem unlawfully revoked the protections that had been granted by the Biden administration, impacting approximately 350,000 Venezuelans who rely on these protections for living and working legally in the United States. These temporary protections were initially set to expire earlier in the month.
Noem had also announced plans to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for about 250,000 Venezuelans in September, along with 500,000 Haitians, whose status would lapse by August.
The government’s attorneys from the Department of Justice maintain that Congress provided the homeland security secretary with expansive authority regarding the TPS program, arguing that these actions should not be subject to judicial review. They described the matter as an unprecedented violation by a district court into the Secretary’s administration of TPS legislation.
The TPS program, initiated by Congress in 1990, aims to protect individuals from deportation from countries facing natural disasters or civil turmoil by allowing them temporary residency and work authorization in the U.S. for up to 18 months, provided the circumstances in their home nations remain unsafe.
Judge Chen emphasized that halting TPS would endanger the lives and economic security of countless Venezuelans and their communities, significantly disrupting families and reducing the substantial economic contributions made by these individuals across the United States.
He argued the government had not shown any “real countervailing harm” in maintaining the existing TPS benefits for Venezuelans, and was convinced that the plaintiffs would likely demonstrate that Noem’s actions are “unauthorized by law, arbitrary and capricious, and motivated by unconstitutional animus.”
Chen was unpersuaded by the government’s stance, highlighting that various derogatory and inaccurate statements made by Noem and former President Trump cast Venezuelans in a criminalizing light, suggesting racial bias was a factor in rescinding the protections.
“Acting on the basis of a negative group stereotype and generalizing such stereotype to the entire group is the classic example of racism,” Judge Chen remarked.