Venezuelans with Temporary Protected Status win removal reprieve from Ninth Circuit

PASADENA, Calif. (CN) — A Ninth Circuit panel on Friday blocked the Trump administration from stripping protections from nearly 350,000 Venezuelans living in the United States, finding Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem lacked authority to end a Biden-era extension.

The panel denied the emergency stay requested by the Trump administration after a lower court postponed the termination of the Temporary Protected Status program for Venezuela until October 2026. The order allows individuals registered under the March 9, 2021, or October 3, 2023, TPS designation to re-register under the new extension.

“The TPS statute is designed to constrain the executive, creating predictable periods of safety and legal status for TPS beneficiaries. Sudden reversals of prior decisions contravene the statute’s plain language and purpose,” U.S. Circuit Judge Kim Wardlaw, a Bill Clinton appointee, wrote for the panel.

Temporary Protected Status, created in the 1990 Immigration Act, is a temporary immigration status provided to nationals of certain countries where violence or economic duress would make deportation difficult or unsafe. About 600,000 Venezuelans living and working in the U.S. were given TPS under the Biden administration in 2021 and 2023, making them the largest group of such status holders in the nation.

Before leaving office, former President Joe Biden issued an 18-month extension of TPS for Venezuelans whose 18-month status was running out in April, but Noem revoked the extension as soon as she took office.

Individual Venezuelan plaintiffs and the National TPS Alliance, an immigrant advocacy group sued the Trump administration, claiming Noem’s actions were motivated by racial animus and violated the Administrative Procedure Act.

In March, Senior U.S. District Judge Edward Chen, a Barack Obama appointee, temporarily postponed the termination of the TPS program for Venezuela until October 2026. A week later, he denied the government’s request to stay the postponement.

The U.S. Supreme Court, however, in a one-page decision that offered no explanation, stayed Chen’s ruling in May, opening the doors for the Trump administration to start deporting as many as 350,000 Venezuelans whose temporary protected status lapsed in April.

The Ninth Circuit panel — rounded out by U.S. Circuit Judge Salvador Mendoza, Jr., a Barack Obama appointee, and U.S. Circuit Judge Anthony D. Johnstone, a Joe Biden appointee — found that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on the claim that Noem exceeded her statutory authority when she announced the elimination of TPS status for Venezuelans. They also ruled that “anything short of a nationwide postponement” would not provide the plaintiffs with complete relief.

“Here, hundreds of thousands of people have been stripped of status and plunged into uncertainty. The stability of TPS has been replaced by fears of family separation, detention, and deportation. Congress did not contemplate this, and the ongoing irreparable harm to Plaintiffs warrants a remedy pending a final adjudication on the merits,” Wardlaw wrote.

On Aug. 25, Chen issued a temporary stay on issuing a decision on the motions to dismiss and summary judgment, pending a decision by the Ninth Circuit on the government’s appeal of the postponement order.

Representatives for the parties did not respond to requests for comment by press time.

In a separate lawsuit, the National TPS alliance challenges the Trump administration’s revocation of ptotections for immigrants from Honduras, Nepal and Nicaragua. In that case, a Ninth Circuit panel granted the government’s emergency stay it requested after a lower court postponed the termination of TPS for the three countries until Nov. 18 while litigation plays out.

Follow @mhattridge_